La Cañada survives Great California Shakeout earthquake drill

La Cañadans ducked, covered and evacuated Wednesday morning, participating in the Great California Shakeout, a statewide earthquake drill designed to test and refine the disaster response protocols of schools and local agencies.

In the La Cañada High School simulation, classes were interrupted precisely at 10:16 a.m.—the agreed upon start time for the drills—by a PA system warning.

“Attention Spartans,” said Assistant Principal Jim Cartnal. “We’re going to participate in the Great California Shakeout right now. Pretend the building has been shaking because of a significant earthquake.”

Eighth-graders in Leslie Baldwin’s math class got under their tables as their teacher encouraged them to stay put.

“I know it’s tight folks, but you want to make sure your head is all the way under,” Baldwin advised.

After a campuswide evacuation to the sports fields, students sat in lines as teachers took attendance. At an emergency table on the southwest end of the track, teachers and administrators formed search and rescue teams assigned to scan the campus in search of “injured” students.

The underlying principles of the Great Shakeout, first organized in 2008, are nothing new to LCHS secretary Chris Roberts, who’s participated in similar drills for years.

“We’ve been doing this for 25 years, but when a real one happens, yeah, it will be scary. Hopefully, I’ll be retired by then,” she said.

Roberts signed in the injured, who were then triaged by staff working with LCHS health clerk Alice Hastings. Students were seated on red, yellow and green tarps according to their level of need.

Sophomore Leeona Jones was suffering from anxiety and shortness of breath, but others were not so lucky. After Hastings took Jones’ pulse and had her rest, senior Trent Bauer came in on a stretcher.

He’s got neck and back pain, a staff member said as a third student was carried in with a necklace placard indicating he was bleeding severely from a leg wound.

Despite the dramatic action under the tent, most Spartans spent the hour in a state of leisure, catching up with friends or playing with cellphones. Some teachers thought to bring their classwork with them and held lessons on the turf.

Junior Sarah Stumpf, a fourth-period teacher’s assistant, brought wheelchairs and supplies to the field. She acknowledged many may view the event as a rare, free hour but said she understood the broader vision.

“It’s so in the long run we know what to do when there is an earthquake,” Stumpf said, surveying the field where friends laughed and joked easily. “If it were real, I’d imagine there would be much more of an outpouring from students.”