On Thursday, October 18th, Anaheim High School participated in the annual Great California Shakeout. The first annual Great California Shakeout was on November 13, 2003, with over 5 million participants. The drill was such a success that is has become an annual drill with increasing participation from residents every year. When the drill was designed, it was made with the objective to prepare and inform residents on ways to be prepared for an earthquake.  However, students were not so sure about how prepared the drill helped them be. 

The drill began with an announcement being played on the speakers to inform students that the drills had begun; students were told to duck under their desks, cover their heads, and hold onto the table legs. Soon after, another announcement played telling students to start heading to the football field.

This is the step where various students felt that the drill had failed because of the chaos it caused. Erick Gutierrez, a student at Anaheim High, stated, “From all my years of experience, this is the worst year…kids are joking and playing around, not taking this seriously. Even the teachers are not paying attention either.”  Another student compared the Great California Shakeout to the fire alarms situation in AHS claiming, “This drill is just like the fire alarm; like when it goes off, all the teachers don’t care. They just let it go by.”

After hearing student’s thoughts on the drill, we asked them what Anaheim High School could do to improve the drill. Raymond Ordiano suggested “Our school can improve the drill by making them realistic. To make them just happen out of the blue instead of having them planned ahead. As we never know when a real earthquake will occur.” Others students such as Erick Gutierrez and Emily Velazquez suggested a similar approach to future drills. Emily Velasquez said having unexpected drills would elicit a much more realistic approach. However, she also said, “Students might react the same way that they react with the fire alarm. At this point, no one takes any drills seriously because the fire alarms ring every week so we think nothing of it.”