On Thurs., March 17, Mt. SAC held an emergency evacuation drill. Alarms did not go off, leaving students left in classes while others were notified via e-mail or text. Employees of the writing center were dispatched to various classes to tell them they needed to evacuate. Many individuals received the official notification of an Emergency Evacuation Drill over 20 minutes after already being evacuated, while others have yet to receive a notification.
“I got an email, text, and phone call 20 minutes after it happened,” said E. Perez Romero, professor of philosophy, who also contacted Public Safety to find out if the drill was “all clear.”
According to Dr. David Charbonneau, director of the writing center, which is in charge of emergency evacuations for Building 26, the evacuation leaders mistook a text notification as the start of a drill and began evacuating the building early.
“We knew to evacuate because we received an email last week,” said Dr. Charbonneau, who later clarified that he knew the exact time from receiving a text message.
According to an email addressed to all Mt. SAC employees and staff, Mt. SAC scheduled an Emergency Evacuation Drill for Thurs., March 17.
The official leaders did not know what was happening, and one of the leaders, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, was not issued a Walkie-Talkie as planned due to a shortage of the communication devices.
The lack of proper communication and timely notification was initially met with resistance by some professors.
“My professor refused to evacuate earlier because she wasn’t notified,” said an anonymous student of Professor Melinda Vandervis’ sociology class.
When an individual entered the classroom and said, “Um…everyone is supposed to be evacuating,” Toni Albertson, professor of journalism, initially met the notification with skepticism because the stranger did not announce who she was, nor did she appear to have the qualifications to give an evacuation advisory.
“For all I know, she could just be some stranger off the street,” said Albertson. “There wasn’t an alarm. There wasn’t any notification. I never even got an email.”
Many students never received a notification, even after others verified that they had received a text or call from the college emergency notification system.
Similarly, professors commented on not receiving any notifications at all about the emergency evacuation drill.
Not all professors received the email specifying that professors should, “Please schedule this 15–20 minute event as part of your activity for the day.”
Due to the lack of proper notification, classes in Building 26 were still being evacuated minutes before the drill concluded.
The failure in communication for the drill left students feeling unsafe, and questioning what would happen in the event of an actual emergency evaluation situation.
“I don’t feel safe. An alarm would have made a huge difference,” said an anonymous student who had been evacuated minutes before the drill concluded, “I would have been dead already.”
Ana Silva, 22, English-literature major, expressed additional concerns as a student with disabilities.
“I was very disappointed with today,” said Silva.
“I feel like I’ve never had a proper warning of what to do in the event of an emergency. It’s really scary because I’m on the third floor all of the time. Other than panic, I had no idea what to do,” said Silva, “I would have to use a lift, but I didn’t feel comfortable, and I didn’t know what to do.”
She added that this was the first drill she’d ever experienced since her time at Mt. SAC that began in 2012.
“My Professor Miss Cannon stayed with me the entire time until they said I could use the elevator. I was very disappointed with today. I tried to think of what I’d do in a real life situation, and I guess as a last resort, I’d ask a classmate to carry me. I have a friend, who is also in a chair, and she doesn’t trust the lift because it seems unsafe. She said she would rather crawl than use the lift,” said Silva.
