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Code Red Drill Prepares Students for Emergency
San Jose Police Department assists VCHS in safety effort
By Sarah Reinartz

Police officers rushed to the scene as students and teachers walked in single file lines out to the junior parking lot during the Code Red Drill on Wednesday, October 6.
Third period began with an announcement over the intercom that a Code Red Drill was taking place. French teacher, Mrs. Connolly remarks, “Our class did pretty well, we got the door locked and we were barricaded long before the police came to our classroom.”
Students were expectant of the Code Red Drill due to the safety rally held on Monday. Examples of other schools in the same predicament were shown, and teachers were stressing about making sure the students knew what to do when it happened. “There was a hype about it from everybody all week long, we knew it would happen somewhere along the line,” says senior Stephanie Ringel. Many teachers and students believe that their individual classes ended up doing well under the circumstances.

Though the school was prompt in evacuating to the parking lot, it wasn’t quite fast enough. The preferred time limit for the whole school to be evacuated and safely in the parking lot was twenty minutes. Valley arrived in twenty- two. Mrs. Connolly states, “I was impressed, twenty-two minutes is not very long for sixteen-hundred students to barricade and evacuate the school.” A similar suggestion made by various students was that perhaps we would have been able to evacuate faster, had there been more police available. This way, a few classes at a time could have evacuated and the whole school’s average time would have been brought down at least a couple of minutes.
Next time there is a Code Red, Valley Christian will surely be prepared and more aware of what to do and how to react, whether it is a drill or a real crisis. Students and teachers alike believe that next time a Code Red is sprung on campus, they will be ready. Stephanie Ringel encourages, “We have had our practice drill now, and practice makes perfect, so next time we will be perfect!