Your Child's First Fire Drill at School

My son's school did NOT give a warning for the first fire drill and he has been traumatized! He's in kindergarten and had never experienced anything like that. It scared him half to death. For days he wouldn't sleep in his own room and he constantly asked questions about fire and alarms. He almost refused to go to school after that and now, several weeks later, still doesn't want to go to school anymore. I'm so ANGRY at the school for not telling the kindergarten kids about the first one at least.

Our school practiced during the first weeks of school without the alarm actually sounding. They simply explained to the kids that they were going to practice what to do if the fire alarm bell rang. Once the kids understood the process they did tell the children ahead of time before the first official fire drill. After that first one, fire drills were "surprises".

My son has Asperger's so anything like this has the potential to scar him forever, but he has handled it well. In K and 1st grade we actually had it in his 504 plan that he was not to be last out of the classroom during a drill because he would worry so much about the responsibilities of being last (having to turn off the lights and shut the door) that he could possibly fall behind or panic. Now in 2nd grade he has been both the leader and the last out of the room and has handled it like a champ.

We did go through about a month or so after the first test runs where he would ask us every night at home if the fire alarm was going to go off or not. He was anxious about the possibility of it going off but it wasn't an overwhelming fear as somethings can be for him and it subsided rather quickly.

Good luck,
K.

I am a teacher and at our school, the principal warns the teachers and it is up to us as to whether or not we tell our students. I will tell you that most ALL teachers will warn the students to some point. You might just want to remind your child that sometimes alarms can be loud and scary, and explain why, or even turn your smoke detector on so he can hear the noise of an alarm from your house, reminding him what he needs to do. ie: listen to adult directions, move through the building quickly, etc.
Good Luck,
K.

Hi B. - My kid's first fire drills were in preschool. With my oldest, they did not notify me that a drill was happening. With my youngest, the teacher told us that morning it would happen. They told the kids what was going to happen and what to do but when it happens it's always a surprise.

My oldest was 4 and absolutely freaked out when it happened. At the babysitter's a few days before he watched Spiderman and saw the scene where Peter Parker saves the baby in the fire. He was almost inconsolable at the fire alarm because he couldnt see that his baby bro. made it out of the building. He thought there was a REAL fire and didnt understand it was a drill. Everyone felt so awful for him and of course I didnt find out about it until I went to pick him up from school. (it also taught me an important lesson about movies!)

They were both fine about school afterwards but my youngest can point out the fire alarm strobe light and speaker in almost any building we go into so I know it affected him in some way.

Before you start worrying about the effect on your child, look back on your own reaction to a fire/tornado drill. I thought they were just the coolest things in the world! Especially the fire drills because we got to go outside for a few minutes with our friends! My kids are in kindergarten and 2nd, and they thought they were super cool, and tell me about them the minute they get into the car.

hmmmm. Most schools do so many practice fire drills that they get really accustomed to the routine before the actual "test alarm" happens. My kids always knew ahead of time in the beginning and the signal was the teacher's whistle and it was about lining up, and which doors to go out, etc. Once they had that routine down, they would do it with the actual alarm drills to see how quickly they were able to assemble at the safety area.
I'm guessing part of doing it so often and randomly was done to get the kids used to it so they wouldn't freak out in the event of an actual fire.
I'm in California, so we were always on the ready to duck and cover under our desks in the event of an earthquake, etc.
It was just emergency preparation techniques that we got used to. I know some little kids hated how loud the bells all rang at once.
In the beginning, the meanings of the drills were all discussed beforehand because the main point was NOT to freak kids out.
I think the practice way is better so that kids are more confident and less freaked out if, God forbid, there was an actual emergency. To me, the whole point is staying calm and remembering to get in line and go to the safe exit with the rest of your class.
You can always talk to the school about trying what we always knew to be "practice drills" while the kids get used to the noise, etc.
That way kids dodn't freak out if it's not the real thing and they get so used to doing it they don't freak out if it is.

Yes, the school talked alot about what would happen and what to do. I'm not sure but I think that in K and 1st grade they practiced before there was an actual drill. I've not heard of any child being upset by such a drill. My granddaughter finds them a bit exciting. My grandson doesn't mind them. He does hate the sound and covers his ears. They've just been a part of school from the beginning.

I remember, as a child, feeling anxious because we had to slide down a tunnel from the second floor. I was a shy, sensitive child. I don't remember ever enjoying slides. I didn't like going down the slide with my toddler grandchildren. But other than not I did not have any ill effects. Our schools, here, do not use tunnel fire escapes now. But even if they did,playgrounds now have covered slides and so a child would be more used to sliding down them.

Both of my daughters were very scared of loud noises, but had gone through fire drills in preschool, and the elementary school teachers were all good about explaining beforehand what was going to happen. The thing that freaked my daughter out was the lockdown drill, where they had to stay in the room and keep quiet. Her kindergarten teacher told the kids to pretend there were wolves in the hallways, and they had to be quiet so the wolves wouldn't find them. My daughter had trouble sleeping for at least a week afterwards, worrying that the wolves were going to get her. One night, when I went in to console her, she said "Mommy, something just wasn't right about what my teacher said. I know there wasn't wolves in the hall, but something just wasn't right." Children are very perceptive! I just reassured her the best I could that she didn't have to worry about wolves, but they just needed to practice being quiet at school for certain emergencies. I didn't want to scare her more than she already was.