Over 2,000 students, school and district staff recently participated in an off-site evacuation exercise at Fredericton High School.
The exercise is part of an annual event to engage district schools and local first responders in practicing emergency and safety protocols. Other Fredericton based schools are also participating in off-site evacuation exercises at this time of year in support of School Safety Week.
"The students learn about emergency response and teachers and staff have their memories refreshed on how to gather and carry out an evacuation," said Danny Lawson, project officer for the district's safety program. "For the scope of the evacuation at Fredericton High, it went very well. It was a very important exercise in terms of safety."
Lawson said the alarm system at FHS sounded at 8:55 a.m. at the start of the school day. Within approximately three minutes, everyone had exited the school building and attendance was taken. All evacuees then headed on foot for École Sainte-Anne, the designated safe assembly point. Check points were set up along the route to ensure participants made it to École Sainte-Anne safely and on time. Attendance was then taken again. Once safety checks were done to complete the exercise, everyone made the trek back to FHS to resume classes and work.
Lawson commended students and staff at FHS for their cooperation and dedication to safety training including Constable Jeannette Hudson, resource officer at FHS, Acting Principal Nathan Langille and Daneen Dymond, Acting Vice-Principal.
"No two exercises go the same way, but this one was really well done," Lawson said.
An emergency evacuation is described as an immediate or urgent movement of people away from a threat or actual occurrence of a hazard.
Shown in the photos below are (1) students evacuating from FHS and (2) students gathering at the safe assembly point at École Saint-Anne.
