Rachel Aretakis  News Editor

Fists pound on the door. Voices yell for help. The team searching for victims hears the frantic calls and work to quickly unlock the door to rescue the class. “Is anybody hurt?” the rescuer yells through the cracked door as he pushes fallen chairs and tables out of the way. The students are released as the rescuers assess the situation and assist a teacher needing aid. 
     As a part of the hour-long tornado drill on Tuesday Jan. 26, faculty and staff worked on teams to deal with various problems that would occur in a time of disaster. Students acted as trapped victims in a CAC classroom to test the faculty on emergency skills. They waited to be rescued by a search and rescue team, which included Daniel Hamm, communications teacher, and Danni Baker, English teacher. They traveled around the school checking classrooms for victims and helping students get out of danger.
     This was only one snapshot of the tornado drill. Throughout the school, obstacles were put together to test the faculty’s response skills to certain situations. A group of 25 students posed as either worried parents, news reporters, injured, dead, or unconscious students in order to simulate what would happen if the school were hit by a tornado.
     This disaster drill, put together by Greg Smith, science teacher and volunteer firefighter, and Cindi Baughman, dean of students, was an opportunity to test Assumption’s emergency plan. After Assumption’s first major fire drill in October 2007, the administration thought it would be smart to have one again, only for a different type of disaster.
     “The most valuable thing we learned [was that] even though our system wasn’t perfect, we could handle an emergency,” said Baughman about the first major drill.
    This confidence encouraged the administration to plan a similar drill. They chose to have a tornado drill because it is a “realistic threat.”
     Throughout the building, teams of two traveled around evaluating the destruction and helping students. Faculty was assigned to either supervise students, or to be on one of several teams: emergency operations center, first aid, search and rescue, fire/utility, support/security, student/parent reunion, and emotional response. Each team carried out certain duties ranging from making sure students are accounted for to clearing a hallway of fallen debris.
     As teachers and staff carried out their duties, students sat in the gymnasium and waited for the drill to end.
     “We were in there for an hour and there really wasn’t anything for us to do,” said sophomore Erin Dermody. She stated that the students knew what was happening outside, but that “they should’ve had a way for [the students] to be more involved in the drill.”
     When the school was finally cleared, Henry Goodrow, an evaluator from the Kentucky State Fire Commission, and Smith spoke with the students about what would happen if a disaster really did occur.
     “As a drill, [it is going] very good. The adrenaline is missing, but it’s very good practice. The confusion is normal,” said Goodrow about Assumption’s reaction to the drill.
     Because it was a drill, problems did occur, such as the second floor in the CAC never evacuating to the gym. There was also some confusion on where teams were supposed to be.
     “I think we need to tweak it a bit,” stated Shellie Bryan, athletic assistant, regarding the fact that the “press” were allowed to come in through the cafeteria doors. Bryan, along with Donna Laemmle, ACTS assistant director, were stationed between doors of the CAC only allowing certain people to enter and exit the building.
     Though they both agreed that the drill could be “fine tuned,” Laemmle said, “it’s a good thing [that Assumption is doing this] because we need to know what to do if anything ever happens”.