Disaster Action Kids Prepare For Dark

Going to school in an area that is on the fringe of "Tornado Alley" can be a frightening experience. We sit in the halls of our school during a tornado warning. Sometimes we have a few hours to prepare. Sometimes we have a few minutes. Sometimes our power goes out and we are in the dark. During times like this we go to the hall where there are no windows. We line up against the walls away from the doors and sit down. We cover our head with our coats, book bags and/or books for protection.

Sometimes our electricity goes off when the power lines go down. Knowing this we (the fifth grade) wrote a proposal asking our parent teacher organization to purchase enough rechargeable flashlights for each one of our classrooms. After investigating the cost of these flashlights, the fifth grade class appointed a committee to write up a proposal stating why we needed the flashlights. They did this. They brought it to class and each one of us signed it. Three of our class members read it at the Parent Teacher Organization meeting. Knowing that flashlights will help teachers to find students when parents come to school to pick them up in bad weather made our request reasonable. The response of our PTO was overwhelming.

The flashlights were ordered. The flashlights came in. The fifth grade class inventoried each one and distributed them to each of the school staff in a weather awareness assembly in the school auditorium. The local television station covered the presentation. Their meteorologists spoke to the students about the importance of being prepared for a disaster.

Our Kid Witness News Team covered this event by videotaping the presentation. This will be part of our video yearbook for the year.

We are proud to be Disaster Action Kids. We think that emergency rechargeable flashlights will assist the teachers and will help calm the students when we have to sit in the halls during tornado warnings. We want to make James L. Cowart School prepared in case of a disaster!