As a youngster, I grew up in Decatur, Ill., a town that has seen its fair share of twisters. While in the Air Force, I made it through a minor typhoon. And of course, I have a wife who has lived most of her youth in Miami, a city that attracts it fair share of hurricanes.
Hurricanes are somewhat predictable, and they take before they strike a city. Tornados can fall out of the sky at anytime without warning. From talking to several experts at ASSA ABLOY, it's difficult for the typical school to react quickly to a twister. In Kansas, the state statutes require that schools test their tornado response three times a year. In most schools, that means going outside into a hallway and having each student putting their head between their knees.
In Enterprise, Alabama, students went into the hallway where a Fujta Scale 4 tornado (a tornado with wind speed of between 207 to 260 miles per hour) killed 11 students. The district thought that the hallway was safe but a wall caved in, killing them.
The new FEMA 361 guidelines provide districts with the resources needed to build a safe school shelter, but then there's a funding issue. In Wichita, funding for 60 schools is part of a major bond package that voters will approve today. As FEMA has grants that pay for up to 75-percent of each shelter, schools still have to finance the remaining amount.
I believe that a school's ability to protect their students from a twister is about as good as their policy to deal with a crazed gunman. Most educators can talk a good game, but when a crazed gunman or a twister hits, most don't have an effective way to deal with the issue.
It's only when people ask their school that effective chance can occur. I hope that my completed article will arm people with the information needed to make schools safer.
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