Chicken-Fried News: Shaky safety

“What about the children?” is a common battle cry in politics, so it’s a little puzzling that Oklahoma’s governor and legislators are twiddling their thumbs when it comes protecting kids from the ground beneath us.

School administrators in Edmond are adding voluntary earthquake safety drills to students’ routines.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on the state to come up with a comprehensive tornado shelter system for our schools. Remember tornados? Big, swirly winds that keep destroying our stuff? We’ve only been dealing with those forever.

Edmond students are taught to drop down, get under their desks and protect their heads when the earth starts shaking. It’s actually the same safety precautions kids in the 1950s were taught in case of a nuclear attack, but it’s probably more useful in this context.

Why are these voluntary? Shouldn’t every school be doing this?

One potential problem: With so many earthquakes, kids might not have time to get off the floor and learn.

Print headline: Shaky safety

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