MAKING TODAY ANOTHER DAY SAFE- AN AWARENESS

When sending their child to school, parents expect their child to receive the best of education and develop essential skills in a safe learning environment. In fact, 1 in every 3 parents considers safety as an important factor before enrolling their child in a school. Despite its grave significance, students often fail to act upon simple safety rules designed for the well-being of themselves and others.

Recent events of deaths in schools due to lab hazards, fire accidents, and stampedes bring to light the need to educate students to not gamble their safety and the safety of the people around them in a place they spend most of their days. Take the example of the deadly stampede which rose after school was out in Kakamega Primary School, Kenya that took the lives of 14 school-children and left other students severely injured. This is only one of the life-endangering accidents occurring in schools which could have been prevented by establishing ground rules and raising awareness of such matters. In the case of an emergency, do we know where to go? How to safely evacuate without trampling others? Which exits to follow? Who to call? Bearing this in mind, the students of 10A & 11A with the teachers of the school’s Safety Committee took the initiative to make students and teachers conscious and prepared to avoid any such traumas or devastating incidents.

The safety presentation was held over the course of two days, from 3rd to 4th March 2020 in the school’s orientation room. With five presenters, monitors for discipline and students as actors, the safety presentation was informative as well as enjoyable for all grades. While the hosts explained safety procedures, the actors enacted various scenes of emergency and what exactly should be done to stay uninjured while also adding a humorous spin to it. The safety crew made it important to teach the students to identify different safety signs present around the school. 

With a statistic revealing that only fifty percent of building occupants know what action to take and where to evacuate in the case of a fire, conducting fire drills became a heightening concern, thus making it a topic of interest in the presentation. What’s surprising is that over 50% of people who operate a fire extinguisher do so incorrectly or dangerously, threatening their life and the lives around them. Due to such reasons, students as well as teachers were taught to follow correct safety procedures during a fire drill while remaining calm and reporting to higher authority.  Amid growing fears of the COVID-19, the safety crew explained the facts and safety measures to be taken to stay risk-free during the epidemic. From demonstrating the correct way to cough to properly sanitizing your hands, the safety crew left no stone unturned in conferring methods of staying shielded against the virus.  Throughout the presentation, the safety crew thoroughly interacted with the students by asking questions and handing out a prize—candy. Now with a motive, students didn’t hesitate to share their answers on staying safe through various natural disasters, precautions taken in science labs, and how safety applies to them in school.  “It was excellent,” said Mrs. Sahifa Farooqi, the academic coordinator. “You [the safety crew] turned something as boring and dull as rules into an entertaining and interactive lecture. You can tell the students took away important safety guidelines from the presentation.”

Voltaire’s often told adage —“the danger which is least expected soonest comes to us” —explains safety cannot be taken for granted with increasing cases of accidents and lethal mishaps. The students and teachers organizing the event hoped this served as a strong reminder to all faculty and students in school: safety is our number one priority. 

Shoutout to:

• Daniah Al Assaf,

• Nuwara Mazen,

• Muneera Al Zouman,

• Lama Saad,

• Fiza Hameed,

• Saba Sajjad,

• Raghad Adnan,

• Amna Sohail,

• Warda Mohammad,

• Nawara Al Assaf,

• Layan Tayyar,

• Refan Al Sheheli,

• Sara Loomat,

• Habiba Allam,

• Sawsan AlSharfa,

• Nouran Maher,

• Reema Al Moussa,

• Lamya Shohaib,

• Sama Khaled,

• Ms. Sameena Saleha, and

• Ms. Zeba Amreen!