Lack of Money Called Barrier to School Earthquake Education Classes

If and when a major earthquake rocks San Diego, those students under the supervision of Wanda Walker or Betty Wilkinson could fare much better than others in school districts around the county.

At Paradise Hills Elementary, where Walker is principal, almost all of the 31 teachers have taken advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training as well as standard first aid. The school has a set of 10 portable two-way radios. Teachers have stored extra water and blankets in classrooms. Nearby grocery stores within walking distance have put away provisions for the school. Realistic earthquake drills have included parents “storming” the campus demanding proof that their children are safe and uninjured. Walker has a set of special tools and a citizens band radio at all times in her truck, which she parks in a secure section of the school’s parking lot.

Wilkinson’s eighth-grade science students at Bell Junior High have walked the campus looking for earthquake hazards, such as rolling trash dumpsters, exposed electrical wires, and poorly secured lunch-area awnings. They have worked with their parents on homework assignments about ways to make homes safer. They have heard recordings made by a radio disc jockey of the massive 1964 Alaska quake, which lasted almost four minutes.

Exception to Rule

But the actions of Walker and Wilkinson are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to earthquake education. In the vast majority of cases, schools have undertaken only the minimum requirements for drills, and have offered little or no educational activities intended to increase the knowledge and preparedness of both students and parents. The situation across the state is little different.

Not that educators aren’t interested in preparing themselves better, particularly since individual schools might be required to take care of hundreds of students for up to three days following a devastating temblor.

A substantial amount of information is now available for schools. A comprehensive earthquake education project that involves students in hands-on activities--from quake bingo to handling seismographs--is available to any district statewide from the highly respected Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.

The lack of widespread dissemination results mainly from a lack of money.

“It’s fight for both resources and for the time in an already-crowded curriculum and school day,” said Tom Payzant, superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District.

The earthquake project attempts to take quake education beyond the “duck and cover” stage by marrying safety and education into an overall curriculum that can be taught at numerous grade levels. But the cost of student kits--and of the seminar time needed to instruct teachers in how best to use them--require money that most districts do not have. State funding to facilitate distribution was eliminated by Gov. George Deukmejian last fall.

“The investment is relatively small but schools don’t have (excess funds) these days to cover the substitute teachers who must be paid so that regular teachers can be released for a daylong seminar,” said Lars Helgeson, science coordinator for the San Diego County Office of Education.

“Unless a district or a school has established a priority for earthquake education, the schools tend not to let people off, especially since there is a great emphasis today on keeping kids and teachers in class.”

Science Course Link

But Helgeson said that in Southern California where the danger of earthquakes is high, a priority on quake education should be established, especially since much of the information can be tied into and improve science courses.

“It still comes down to the fact that people don’t feel it as a major priority,” he said. “Schools tend to do those things on which they are going to be evaluated on and if you put aside a portion of your math program to teach earthquakes, you get in trouble because the curriculum is not evaluated for it. And God forbid that your kids attend a safety lecture instead of a football game.”

Even after the recent quakes in Los Angeles and the Imperial Valley, interest from school districts in seminars has been tepid, Helgeson said.

Dale Ingmanson, a geology professor at San Diego State University, is the regional seminar leader for the Lawrence Hall earthquake project program.

Frustration Expressed

“It’s been frustrating,” Ingmanson said. “Last year we did an all-day workshop and (the state) paid for the kits and the teachers who came. But now we have to volunteer our time and it’s hard to get teachers to come unless they’re paid for it.”

Willa Ramsay coordinated the seminars with Ingmanson for the city school district last year as a science curriculum specialist. But because of budget cuts, her specialist position was eliminated and she has returned to teaching physics at Lincoln High School.

“Last year, I had Dale and two professors who work with him do a one-hour presentation for some 30 eighth-grade science teachers to save money, although they would rather do an all-day session,” Ramsay said. “But that costs a lot, given our district’s situation.

“So my colleagues are not as aware of the (program) as they should be but if you want teachers to come for an-all day session, you have to pay for the substitute and offer some money unless an individual teacher is really, really interested.”

Wilkinson of Bell Junior High was one of the science teachers whose principal agreed to pay for her to attend a daylong seminar taught by Ingmanson.

Transplant From Texas

“I happen to be a Texan transplant to California and was exceptionally interested,” said Wilkinson, a Bell teacher for the past four years. “There is a section in the textbook for eighth-grade science on earthquakes which talks about plate tectonics (the movement of the earth which underlies the origin of quakes).

“But the (Lawrence Hall) project is activity-oriented, with games and hands-on projects which are geared to our area. They get the attention of the students much better (than the text) and the students certainly remember it much better.

“After our field trip around the campus looking for hazards, I am certain that our students know now what to look for in hazards. Another project called for ‘increasing your EQ’ (earthquake quotient) by working with parents on potential dangers around the home.”

Wilkinson hopes to find time to explain the program to other teachers at Bell in an effort to get the materials used more widely.

But even at Bell, quake preparedness has a way to go. Principal Joene Bruhn said that she dreads a major quake that would leave school officials caring for their more than 2,000 students over a period of days.

“The thought is frightening,” Bruhn said. “I hope any quake that happens comes during the night. It’s an astronomical cost to supply a school like ours with water, tools, etc. for several days. Right now we are trying to find out how many of our staff can handle blood, who can handle CPR, what would happen if parents come to the school looking for their kids, and so on and so on.

“We just have the bare bones now to get by in case of a real disaster.”

Schools Supt. Payzant said he is comfortable with the district’s plans for immediate evacuation of students into open areas, plans that have been disseminated at all schools.

“But it isn’t right for me to suggest that we are prepared to go for a long haul over a number of hours to provide food and other provisions that would be needed,” he said. “In the case of Wanda (Walker at Paradise Hills), it sounds to me that she has done much more than the usual.”

Said Walker: “It isn’t just me, it’s my entire staff,” adding that she has paid for the school’s preparations out of her own school budget with no encouragement from the district.

“I sat down with the teachers and said, ‘Look, we can Mickey Mouse this and do the duck- and-cover and fire drill and end it’. But in a big quake, with doors jimmied shut and with bungalows perhaps coming off their foundations, I want to avoid a panic because that happens when people are afraid and don’t know what to do,” Walker said.

“If you drill enough on something, you will still be scared but everyone will know what their job is and do a much better job of keeping things calm.”

Walker has even asked that cafeterias throughout the school district store cans of food and water during the year in case of a quake. “And because of shelf life problems, we could have an ‘earthquake party’ at the end of the year that the kids would love. But we haven’t heard back from the district on that yet,” she said.

“I just believe in being ready.”