As an elementary school teacher in this day and age, being prepared for the worst-case scenario has become the new normal, and fourth-grade teacher Eric Anderson has never taken for granted the importance of preparation.
Anderson is a teacher at Maple Grove Elementary School in the Battle Ground Public Schools District who knows preparedness is key when it comes to emergencies. Now, whether that’s for incidents of violent nature or natural disasters, Anderson’s students will know what to do and likely will have it ingrained in them for the rest of their lives.
“It’s critical,” Anderson said of classrooms being prepared for emergencies.
In Washington state, an earthquake of severe magnitude is not too common, but never out of the realm of possibility in the Cascadia Subduction zone. On Thursday, Oct. 16, the entire world practiced earthquake preparedness for the International ShakeOut Day.
The Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drill is a crucial moment for schools across the country and the globe, as students and staff practice by hiding under their desks and discussing what to do after a big shake of the earth.
“As you can imagine, in a drill setting like this, it can get very chaotic, and so the more we practice and prepare, the more capable they’ll be to respond to those situations appropriately,” Anderson said.
Anderson has no past experiences that have caused him to focus on emergency preparedness more than others. He just recognizes the importance of practice, especially with elementary-aged children.
“We’ve been fortunate here in this area, no fires, no earthquakes,” he said, “but as you can imagine, I mean, we have intruders on school campuses daily across our nation, and so hopefully nothing like that ever happens in Battle Ground schools, but if it does, we want to be ready.”
In terms of earthquakes, Anderson said he is a huge fan of the Great ShakeOut Drill.
“I like that the whole nation actually stops and practices this together,” he said. “I think that’s an amazing thing to do, and I hope we keep doing it for years to come.”
He added that he is proud of his students after each drill. Sometimes it may be tough for an elementary school student to understand the scope of why perfecting the drill is crucial.
“I think they buy into my idea,” Anderson said. “I have a mantra that I say all the time, ‘Luck favors the prepared.’ And they buy into that pretty regularly, and so they take it as seriously as possible. I let them know I want them to take it seriously.”
However, Anderson is faced with a new challenge after a double-levy failure. His class size increased by five students compared to recent years, from 22 to 27. He said it may not seem like a huge difference, but the increase in bodies in the room is impacting.
“It puts more stress on teachers,” he said. “It puts more stress on even the students to navigate these kinds of drills. We make it work as best as we can with what we have, but it’d be safer if we had a little smaller classroom sizes.”
