EDITORIAL - Knowing what not to do is also important

What was supposed to be an occasion to teach students of a school how to properly respond to a fire or earthquake became a real disaster instead after many of them collapsed due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.

A total of 104 students of the Gulod National High School-Mamatid Extension in Cabuyao, Laguna, were sent to the hospital after they collapsed or complained of light-headedness.

During the drill last Thursday the students were reportedly crammed into a classroom then left there for three hours without access to food or water. As unlikely as it sounds, the social media account of Cabuyao Mayor Dennis Hain said as much as 3,000 students were crammed into that room.

Whatever the number is, too many of them were crammed into too small a space in too hot temperatures.

After that he said the students were then made to leave the room then stand in a field under the heat of the sun for another 30 minutes.

The teachers reportedly didn’t let the students wear hats or use umbrellas under the sun because they wanted to simulate real emergency conditions when students don’t have time to grab anything when evacuating their classroom.

This was when students started collapsing or feeling ill.

There are many details we are not privy to about the incident and how it was conducted, but the surprise drill was reportedly not coordinated with proper authorities and lacked qualified safety personnel. In fact only boy scouts and girl scouts acted as marshals during the event.

It is safe to say the school was not prepared to conduct the drill when it did. It is good that students only collapsed, we say this because it could have easily been worse.

On the other hand we can also look at the bright side and see this not as a total failure, in fact it can be a teachable moment. The event can actually serve as an example, specifically of how not to conduct a fire drill.

Considering the frequency of fire incidents it is important for all of us, most especially students who don’t yet have the composure adults have in the face of disasters, to know what to do. But along the way it is also important to know what things should not be done.