A stormy gray sky boomed with the forming twister.  Students go into their respective spots in the hallway.  But wait, the long hallway students had yet to leave their classrooms.  The announcement that was made about the oncoming twister failed to reach their rooms.

The classrooms that are by the Meredith-Hoover connection do not have any noise coming through the PA system except for the choir room.  No bell or announcements heard except for one in the hallway.  That can be a dangerous thing.

Administrators may need to get an important message to teachers and the messed up PA system would hinder the message getting delivered.  Fires, tornadoes, and problems with students would go unnoticed by educators because of lack of communication.

There are also problems with phones and computers.  They are connected and when the internet goes down, so does the phone system.

These problems can put students at risk.  Security can be a worry to some teachers.

“If there was something going on in the building and we’re not aware of not being able to hear of they need to get a hold of us,”  computers teacher Judith Renoux said.

“I think my biggest worry is since I still don’t have a PA system, if there’s another lock down I won’t know anything,” drama teacher Emily Griffin said.

Some teachers feel like this is a problem.

“I think it’s really inconvenient.  I thought they were working on it.  It’s halfway through the school year.  I hope they have something in place if something happens.  Do they know they need to call rooms who don’t have access (during) emergency situations,” Griffin said.

“I just say its frustrating.  We learn how to deal with it hopefully they’ll have it fixed soon, (it’s) an inconvenience,” Renoux said, “The worst thing would be a type of notification of something we needed to be aware of, didn’t know and let students out in the hall because we didn’t know.”

These problems should hopefully be fixed quickly because of the troubles it has the possibility of causing teachers and students.  The district is the one that is supposed to fix it, but since there are so many schools in the district that all need something fixed, patience is needed until they are fixed.

When Griffin first came to the school, her room was void of a phone, clock and PA system  Those three things are essential in every classroom to keep up with information or emergencies.

“I think when you don’t have everything you need right away you feel left behind and frazzled.  I’m lucky I had people help me get the things I needed,” Griffin said, “I think that (with) the PA system there was a specific incident where school was on lock down and I didn’t know until I sent someone out into the hall only to have them shoved back in. And not having a phone, when there was a problem with a student I had to go out and find someone, leaving the class alone. Thankfully it doesn’t happen a lot.”

There has luckily been nothing worse than a lock down without these teachers knowing.  If they aren’t able to reach people who know what is going on and what to do during emergencies, not only could they be in danger, but the students whose safety they are entrusted with are in danger also.  These problems must be fixed.