Well, by the time you read this, you might have received two emails from our list serve where I explained that the weather sirens near Owen starting sounding at approximately 3:15pm. This blog is meant to offer my reflections on the situation as it arose. When those alarms began ringing, we sounded the school alarm bells for tornado warning. Coincidentally, Mrs. Johnson and I planned on a tornado drill next week. As soon as our bells sounded, staff members guided students to their safety locations. I have to commend our entire faculty and students. They moved quickly and with clear confidence to their assigned locations. Students were quietly attentive to their teachers and our check-in system made sure all students were accounted for. And then we waited...and waited. Though it only ended up being approximately 20 minutes, it felt significantly longer than that. Throughout this situation our staff assisted with any students who felt anxious or upset. This was a stressful time for everyone since we could only see a very dark sky outside and had no word on whether the severe weather was heading directly toward us or away from us. Thankfully, we found out that the storm was moving toward Indiana and that no damage had been sustained.
This is the first significant storm weather emergency I can remember since the first day of my senior year at Waubonsie. That happened to be the day that a tornado leveled Plainfield High School. Luckily for Plainfield, it was the day before school began so the building was not full of students attending classes. That was a jarring event for my classmates and I. At the time, Plainfield was in our athletic conference and we had a healthy rivalry in most sports. I am most impressed by the effort my classmates put forth to help in Plainfield. Despite the destruction of the school, they had football games that year. By the time Waubonsie travelled to Joliet, where they had temporarily relocated the school, our student body had raised just under $18,000 that we gave them at a halftime presentation ceremony. At the time, Waubonsie was just over 1300 total students, which makes this collection more impressive to me. These thoughts flashed through my head as the weather moved through the area today. I am thankful that nothing bad happened and that our students were so very good at waiting. Their patience and support of each other reinforced my feelings that our students are truly good young people.
Comments