by Kahyin Rasher | staff writer

The Senate has passed a new law limiting schools to eight emergency drills a semester.

Officials think schools have been spending too much, or too little time doing emergency drills. By giving schools a number they have to do, it limits time spent out of class. 

“I don’t for sure know the purpose, but I think, you know, schools spending a lot of time doing drills, students missing class, you know, and there’s probably some schools that were not doing enough drills. They tried to set a number just to make sure everybody was doing it on a consistent basis equally at every school,” assistant principal Candace Pearson said. 

The law seems to want to benefit both the teachers and students.

“I think the students benefit from going through the process of the drills on a regular basis but, not having so many drills that they don’t take them seriously or their missing a lot of classes. So I think it is a benefit for the students and the teachers in that way,” Pearson said. 

Still, with school safety on everyone’s minds, campus administration was surprised by the move away from drills.

“I was surprised by it.  I wasn’t expecting it but you know, I think it’s a good thing,” Pearson said. 

Johnson has so far met all standards in the 2019-2020 school year.  “I think we’re going to get through all the drills that we need to make sure everybody knows what to do if there is an emergency, so I think it’s a good thing,” Pearson said.