Fire drill replaced by Code Blue and Red

The school-year's first Code Blue and Code Red drills took place during sixth period on Sept. 15, allowing Blair faculty to test a new method for reporting student attendance during emergency situations. The previously scheduled fire drill was cancelled in anticipation of afternoon rain showers, said Safety Committee Sponsor Mark Curran.

At 1:44 p.m., Principal Philip Gainous announced that the school was operating under a Code Blue drill, which transitioned into Code Red at 2:01 p.m. and lasted until the dismissal bell at 2:10 p.m.

Teachers reported attendance through Blair Private, an email forum for Blair staff members. According to a new safety policy in the faculty handbook, "all teachers are supposed to send [the Safety Committee] an email with either 'All students present' or with the names of the missing students as the subject line," Curran explained. Although the rule was developed last year, this is the first time it has been implemented.

The fire drill scheduled to take place at 1:30 p.m. was cancelled because weather forecasts predicted rain, according to Curran. "It obviously didn't rain, but this morning we were told that it was going to rain later on so we couldn't do the drill," he said. The practice evacuation would have been the first school-wide fire drill of the school-year, following the fire drill for freshmen on Aug. 29.

Curran stated that an evacuation must take place within the next few school days in order to comply with local fire department regulations. Blair is required to have at least two fire drills during the first 30 days of school and one evacuation every 30 days after that.