By Olimpia Kane ’16, Staff Writer

In 1960, Chile experienced the largest earthquake in the last century, a 9.5 on the Richter scale. The effects were devastating at the time. Today in the 21st century, Japan seems to be treading water, instead of drowning in it. Why is that?

In part, because the earthquake did not destroy Japan’s well-designed buildings. Some of the aftershocks caused a tsunami. This tsunami, adding to the destruction of Japan, damaged some power lines. Some of those power lines powered a device that stopped the core of a nuclear reactor from overheating, by giving it cooling water. Without the cooling water, the core became so hot that it melted through the steel reactor vessel, which released a large amount of radioactivity into the containment building, which surrounds the vessel. The resulting effect caused radiation to spread throughout Japan.

It will take years for Japan to recover from this; but putting aside the radiation issues, the scale of the damage could have been much worse. In large part, this due to the vast number of people knew what to do, and were able to save themselves. This is because public schools in Japan have earthquake drills once a month- much in the same way we at NA have fire drills. In some areas, with help from the local fire department, children also take turns practicing in earthquake-simulation devices, which are special rooms that can be made to shake just as they would in a serious earthquake.

At NA, if a fire actually happened, my fellow classmates and I probably would not evacuate quietly, and we definitely would not go in two orderly lines. To speak for myself, I would most likely run screaming from the class. I can recall teachers who, upon seeing students rise to obey the call of the bell, have made everyone wait while they finish up whatever they were saying. Casey Maslan ’16, believes that, “I don’t think we need one every month….because a drill is a drill. It’s not going to actually help, so missing class does not benefit anyone.”

I am sure that fire drills will help to some degree, in the event of an emergency. But the best way to fix a problem is to go to its source, and many students have good ideas that could make a drill more effective. Casey also says that: “in the case of an emergency, yes, we should know what to do. Sometimes the drills do help, especially the ones where we go to the football field. We should do those more often.”

Remember, middle-schoolers in Japan prepare for earthquakes by going in a room that shakes as it would in an earthquake. I feel that after an experience like that, I would not only take drills more seriously, but I would be more collected if disaster did strike.

It is a New Jersey state law for every school, independent or public, to have one security drill and one evacuation drill monthly. Further, it is also a requirement for schools to have a lock-in where the police come in and patrol the hallways, pretending that they are a potentially dangerous person.

Middle School principal Tom Ashburn says that while “the drills are required, I hope that people would respond immediately, whether they are aware it is a drill or not.” When faced with the question of whether middle-schoolers actually take the drills seriously, Mr. Ashburn replied with, “Some do, and some don’t.” This seems to be the opinion of most educators—but maybe if we start seeing more of the actions that supposedly make a drill more realistic, then the students would treat the drill as a serious event itself.