South Koreans know how to drill

South Koreans know  how to drill

To the editor:
    Pu Yeah! Pu Yeah! Pu Yeah! Was the sound heard moments before the bells and buzzers began to ring in the school. All week there had been discussions and meetings between the teachers and administrators about meeting the needs for an inspection of the alarm system at the school. Teachers are adept at contingencies. If a kid demonstrates the immutable laws of physics by demonstrating what goes down comes up, you have an instant lesson on medical care. Teachers and their grade books are rooted to the same tree. The minute that there is a threat or trouble in the air, the grade book is clasped and noses are counted. You do not want to be on the wrong side of a teacher gathering students. 

    Pu Yeah is the phonetic sound of the cry: Fire! It was Friday afternoon, our classes were almost done at four. The technicians had been running around the building testing all the alarms and alert systems that are part of any school. Wrapped in devices and special tools it was easy to think that space aliens had landed. In Korea, just as in the U.S., fire drills are part of school life. In America, while the teachers are alerted as to the time and place, students are not told. I can still remember those bells in the high school ringing the alarm and all of us trooping out rather calmly to the assembly points for our classrooms. Once outside, the roll was called. We stood around laughing and joking and then back in we went. My Korean teachers told me as we went out that this would be different.
    First there was the pre-drill alert. All the teachers went out to the soccer field. Some were to be part of the scene and others were to keep track of what was happening for the debrief afterword. One teacher was on the third floor with the smoke cans. Another was at the health center with an “injured” student. The rest of us took our positions around the school’s exterior. Then the call of Fire! The main bell began ringing. Out came the students at a run, very disciplined in their exit and following their teachers to the far side of the field. They were having fun as it was one of the few times they could run. Turning around from watching them I saw the smoke canisters at work, red smoke pouring out of the third floor classroom. Not my cooking!
    Sirens wailed! The school nurse, injured student and two stretcher bearers come out. The ambulance comes screeching in and the student is carried off. Steps abound in Korea and the injured student was on a canvas stretcher. Navigating those steps with a fabric stretcher and without any serious training in moving patients was more of a comedy show. The medics did not lose their patient.
    In the center of the field, were two stacks of raked leaves and branches. these were set on fire and the fire truck comes rolling around the side of the building. Two of the teachers on the fire committee were at work with the extinguishers and the firemen were rolling out of the truck, pressuring their hoses and beginning the attack. Lots and lots of smoke, flames, and noise. Making notes, giving directions, taking rolls, the teachers and firefighters coordinated the scene. Finally, the fire out, students accounted for, the ambulance off to the hospital, and the fire truck repacked it was time to call an end to the drill. A success. The alarms worked and no one got hurt. It was a Friday afternoon, the sun was brilliant in the blue sky, and it was time to go home. A good day.