Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Let everyone know it’s just a drill

fire-alarm-715427I’ve used this blog several times to urge schools to have an emergency plan in place and then practice it again and again. The plan should cover…

I’ve used this blog several times to urge schools to have an emergency plan in place and then practice it again and again. The plan should cover natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires, and earthquakes. And it should consider that a gunman could arrive on campus and start shooting.

The latter event recently occurred in a New Jersey pre-school. Fortunately, there were no kids around when a gunman stormed into the library during a teacher workshop and began firing a handgun. Staff members present at the time fled for their lives. Thankfully, there was only one injury caused when a teacher tripped running out of the building.…Read More

Ohio tornado kills 7, wrecks cop cars, graduation

School buses are shown after being tossed by a tornado in the parking lot of damaged Lake High School in Lake Township, Ohio Sunday, June 6, 2010 (AP).
School buses are shown after being tossed by a tornado in the parking lot of damaged Lake High School in Lake Township, Ohio Sunday, June 6, 2010 (AP).

An Ohio community whose high school was destroyed the day before graduation by a tornado that killed seven people, including the valedictorian’s father, rescheduled the ceremony as residents sifted through houses in many cases reduced to rubble.

The tornado was part of a line of storms that ripped through the Midwest on June 5 and 6, destroying dozens of homes and an emergency services building in northwest Ohio.

Storms collapsed a movie-theater roof in Illinois and ripped siding off a building at a Michigan nuclear plant, forcing a shutdown. But the worst destruction was reserved for a strip up to 300 yard wide and 10 miles long southeast of Toledo left littered on June 6 with wrecked vehicles, splintered wood and family possessions.…Read More