Safety Week made its 2021-2022 appearance at the Manhattan High West Campus last week. The purpose of Safety Week is to ensure that students, teachers and staff are prepared to handle procedures in the event of extreme weather or other threats. 

“Every year we do one Safety Week,” Assistant Principal Larry Myers said. “If there’s ever an actual emergency — which we’ve had fire emergencies….but usually they’re just practice and usually they’re pretty minor — everybody knows proper procedures.”

On Monday, the school participated in the secure campus and severe weather drills. The lockdown drill occurred on Tuesday morning. The fire drill was slated to take place on Thursday, but has been postponed, likely to sometime this week. 

Safety Week’s schedule included minor modifications from past years, partially due to construction and partially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The big thing that we had to [change] this year is more about construction, and it’s moving in different directions,” Myers said. “Mainly where people go, and how they get there.”

For the fire drill, E Hall students, teachers and staff will be redirected from their typical East parking lot location to the Northwest parking lot. 

However, Myers said that COVID-19 was still a consideration when determining the logistics of the drills. 

“One of the main modifications that we have right now [is that] we don’t want to risk putting everybody in one area,” Myers said.

However, this regulation would not be imposed for actual emergencies. 

The minor Safety Week modifications came as a result of a collaborative conversation between MHS administration and district administration.

Myers said he observed that most students handle Safety Week responsibly. 

“When we do a lockdown drill…sometimes [students] can get a little antsy, but for the most part, I think everybody takes it seriously, both students and teachers,” Myers said.