Would You Feel Safe Evacuating Down Those Stairs?

Sam Elliott | Web-Editor

With a new building and continued construction comes the discussion of safety for both students and staff. Many students have expressed their concern for the safety of the stairs from the very beginning. Beyond the complaints of general travel between classes, some worry it would be unsafe during an emergency evacuation.

The new building contains three floors and three sets of stairs, which are separated throughout the three corners of the school. With these new stairs also comes new concerns. A lot of people feel the stairs are already crowded, and in the case of an emergency where all the students are rushing down the stairs at once, not many people are hopeful in the event of a real evacuation scenario.

“Well, yeah, it would be chaos. It’s hard enough getting down those stairs normally,” Jordan Datus (11) said.

The students aren’t the only ones with concerns about the staircases, though. Some of the teachers have their own concerns as well, such as history teacher, Mrs.Weitzel, who is one of many teachers on the third floor of this new building. “My greatest concern is for disabled students, like, I wouldn’t know what to do in that situation,” Weitzel said.

This poses a good question, and it turns out, there is already a solution in place for this very issue. On some of the stairs there are “Evac Chairs.” The chair has a simple yet very helpful use. Noticeably by its large yellow bag, it displays an example of its usage.

“Evac Chairs (Evacuation Chairs) are a universal evacuation solution for a smooth stairwell descent during an emergency. Designed to evacuate the disabled, elderly, pregnant, children, injured, blind, Epileptic, or the mobility impaired.” A helpful guide provided by California State University Dominguez Hills explains step by step how to use these simple devices: