Sevastopol School Leaders Learn from an Emergency Drill

Photo by Brett Kosmider.

Schools have tornado drills and fire drills to train students and staff members about where to go and what to do in case of an emergency. This winter, leaders at a Door County school also learned something from one of those training drills.

In Sevastopol, the school recently fielded a few complaints following a fire drill on a day when temperatures were in the 20s. Fire drills require students to drop what they’re doing and exit the building immediately – in some cases, in gym clothes and shorts, and most without coats.

Superintendent Kyle Luedtke said by email that students were outside for fewer than five minutes.

“What we learned is if this was indeed a real fire or another reason we would evacuate, we would need to take the students over to the local church,” Luedtke said.

He said in hindsight, he should have canceled the drill.

“We are to have a drill on average once a month,” he said. “I wanted to get one in and knew this week would be even colder than last week,” he said, referring to the last week of January, when temperatures were in the single digits.