CSEPP Drill

Well... if you are from Eastern Oregon you will empathize with me. Tomorrow is the county wide CSEPP drill. I am shakin' in my spaceboots here. Let me explain CSEPP. It stands for "Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program" and no I didn't have to look it up! It has to do with those "shelter in place kits" that everyone in the Umatilla and Morrow counties have in their house. It has to do with those little "tone alert radios" that everyone also has. Those annoying little gray boxes that can tell you the weather but when they go off during a CSEPP test, you about wet yourself.

A little background: we live less than 10 miles of one of the most dangerous places in the US. It is called the Umatilla Army Depot. They store chemical munitions there, and are in the process of safely destroying them. Well guess what... if they drop one of those bombs on accident while they are moving them, or while they are being burned in the incinerator they blow up, everyone WILL DIE! It is mustard gas yucky stuff that they drop on countries during war. They created this PLAN to keep everyone safe during an emergency of that sort. Well for any plan to work, you have to practice... which brings me to:

Tomorrow at 9:30, during lit block, the big drill will happen. I will probably be sweating bullets at like 9:24. When I hear these words, "We are sheltering in place..." I have to take roll of my 12 lit block kids, walk them down the back way to the gym, count them again, and release them to their own teachers. I then have to round up my own lovely 25 second graders, sit them down, and take roll again! All the while 19+ teachers are doing the same thing, in the same room. All the while this EAR PIERCING SHRIEK is blasting through the entire county. ALL THE WHILE THE FEDS ARE EVALUATING THE PROCESS OUR SCHOOL IS GOING THROUGH... WE ARE GETTING GRADED.

You know what? I value practice. If something of this nature ever happens, we will be glad there is a plan that will save most of the lives on this side of the state. But holy crap... At least we can shelter in place at school. When I was in HS in Stanfield we practiced getting on the bus and getting on the road within 5 minutes. We were supposed to be headed to Pilot Rock to shelter in their school gym... can you imagine the pandemonium on the roads if this were to happen? I'll let you know how it goes... I am getting observed by the principal on Thursday and am less nervous about that!