It’s an ordinary day. You come to school, expecting to go to the same classes, and see the same friends. But today is different. The ground starts to shake, the lessons of the day are thrown aside, and the standard procedure of duck and cover is enacted. This is no drill. This is for real.

Few students know what it feels like to be in a genuine earthquake. However, the earthquake drill has been a school norm as long as students have been in school themselves. It has its origins in the America’s Cold War days, as a protection from potential nuclear attack. It quickly became a part of Civil Defense drills that all American citizens were required to practice. Eventually, as the threat of nuclear annihilation waned as the Soviet Union broke up, the drill became more associated with earthquakes and for people in the American Midwest, tornadoes.

Many students have grown to see the drill as a standard in school policy. Like walking outside during a fire drill and the teacher putting out a green OK sign during lockdown drills.  However, the students still ask how this will benefit. After all, what are the odds of an earthquake happening any time soon?

Unfortunately, earthquakes aren’t the type of things that schedule when they happen. One can happen anytime anywhere,especially in California. The events earlier this year in Japan were a sobering reality of the unexpected power and destruction of a quake/tsunami. And the exact same effect could be experienced on the West Coast.  

The drill Oct. 20 was a statewide effort, with nearly every student in California participating. However, participation does not exactly mean full understanding of what’s going on. Students may think that the drill is just a reason to put the day’s lesson aside and take a break that’s spent under their desk. But if there ever were an earthquake, procedure has to be followed for everyone’s safety. Whether it’s cool or not to get under a desk won’t matter when the actual quake takes place. From there on out, one must follow the rules or run the risk of getting oneself and others hurt in the process.

Drills may seem mundane, even annoying to some. But in the end, they help a lot more than they hinder. It might be uncomfortable to sit under a desk. But that is a minor nuisance compared to being buried under rubble.