As most people are aware, a few Thursdays ago an unannounced code red drill took place at Lake Brantley Hugh School. The code red drill and the panic that followed it have since then made national news.

What exactly occurred was that the school conducted an unannounced code red drill which is not a new procedure at Seminole County schools. The reason this unannounced code red was different from the rest was parents were not alerted that this drill was occurring until at least 30 minutes later than normal procedure. This lead to many students messaging their last goodbyes and parents were not able to inform the students that everything was okay, it’s just a drill, like in the past.

Understandably this lead to parents being worried of losing their children and caused many students to experience immense anxiety which both could have been avoided. The true panic occurred during lunch when an administrator made an announcement over the intercom. The administrator tried to calm the students by congratulating them on their participation in the earlier code red drill. Although, all the students heard over the noise of construction on campus and the general chatter of the lunch room was “code red”.

Once students picked up that phrase, the frenzy began. As seen in a video circulating the internet, students rushed, pushed, and shoved to escape the confines of the cafeteria. It turned into every man for himself and these scared kids were trying their best to do what they could, in their heads, to survive. This chaos led to a girl falling over and being trampled by so many students, her leg is now broken.

https://www.facebook.com/wesh2news/videos/270743156969361/

With this event hitting close to home for many people, this has sparked a national conversation about the effects of code red drills on teenagers. This is especially true for the families here at Lyman considering the school is only 6.4 miles away from Lake Brantley. It’s just as possible something like this could have occurred at any Seminole County School.

“I understand the announced code reds because they try to get people familiar with the procedures, but to do an unannounced one it puts people in a situation that gives us a lot of unnecessary stress,” sophomore Steven Martin claimed.

What took place at Lake Brantley High School last week was something no student, or parent for that matter, should ever have to undergo. Thankfully since then the sheriff’s office has temporarily suspended all code red drills until new procedures have been decided and properly implemented in Seminole County Schools.