How Schools Can Participate
Schools have many key roles during disasters, and when they are well prepared all Californians benefit. Also, by holding their earthquake drills on the same day, they inspire the participation of many other Californians. In 2008, nearly 5 million students and staff participated!
The boxes below describe how schools and districts can plan for their drill, get prepared for earthquakes, and share what they are doing with others.
Letters of Support from County Superintendents
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Which schools are participating? |
Most of the children at Escondido Christian School were at the normally scheduled recess. When they heard the sound of the "Earthquake" played on our PA, they all moved away from buildings, and dropped to the ground. When the shaking stopped everyone evacuated, just as they have practiced during regular fire drills. Every class was checked and everyone was accounted for.
- Invite your students' parents to register their families to participate in the ShakeOut. Use Parent/PTA meetings to spread the word.
- Record an auto-dial message to parents about your school's participation in the ShakeOut. Use or modify our sample phone script (English and Spanish)
- Display posters about ShakeOut in classrooms and offices on bulletin boards. Put ShakeOut flyers at your public counters. Include a flyer in paycheck envelopes, or an article in your school newsletter.
- Tell everyone to watch "Preparedness Now", a compelling film that depicts what will happen in a "big one," and other videos.
- Hold a meeting among your parents and staff and share personal and family preparedness information and discuss what individuals and their families can do to ShakeOut. Have everyone register while at the meeting, especially those without internet access.
- Design and host preparedness events to encourage your client community to join the ShakeOut and prepare for disasters. Create alliances with other organizations to make the event a bigger success.
Today: Register your school or district to be counted in the ShakeOut Drill, get email updates, and more.
Between now and October 21:
- Meet with your School Safety Committee to plan your drill. Plan to include everyone on campus in the drill. (See this page for what those with a disability or an activity limitation can do.) The ShakeOut Drill Planning Resources for Schools page has comprehensive materials to support you in organizing simple to advanced earthquake drills (including manuals, checklists, and recordings to play during your drill).
- Support preparedness throughout your community by sending ShakeOut Take-Home Materials home with students to help their families get prepared.
- Encourage teachers to discuss earthquakes and preparedness in class. The ShakeOut Educational Resources page has many materials and suggestions for activities.
- Evaluate and increase your school's level of preparedness. Review School Preparedness Information that has been created to help prepare your school or district for California’s next big quake.
- Secure Your Space: As a special theme for the 2010 ShakeOut, we encourage all Californians to reduce potential damage and injuries by strapping furniture and large appliances to walls, securing TVs and electronics, applying quake putty to small items, and more.
October 21: Implement your drill plan along with thousands of other schools across California!
There are many things schools and districts can do to evaluate and increase their earthquake preparedness before the ShakeOut.
Start by downloading a self-survey for your planning purposes to check your current level of preparedness and get ideas on how to better prepare your school or district for California’s next big quake.
Then review the School Preparedness Information page for steps to improve preparedness.
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