Thelma Barker students participate in tornado drill for Severe Weather Awareness

JACKSON, Tenn. — It’s Severe Weather Awareness Week in Tennessee. To prepare, Thelma Barker Elementary School paused class for a tornado drill.

“We’ve seen a lot of things happen this past school year and this year, so I feel like we need to be prepared and I’m very confident about Thelma Barker being prepared,” assistant principal Mia Neely said.

Thelma Barker has safety precautions in place due to windows and doors in the school, but they added even more precautions due to COVID-19 guidelines, like social distancing. Instead of students lining the hallways, they were assigned safer designated areas to take cover.

“The sirens will go off and then I’ll announce we need to go to our positions, and each class goes to a designated safety spot.The teachers are with their students, and the students will get in their positions,” Neely said. “They get on their knees and their head is between their knees, and they put their hands on top of their heads.”

Neely said during the drill, students are asked to stay quiet until they get instructions over the intercom system.

She says she is confident that students will know what to do and how to behave if a real tornado were to hit.

Madison County will test the tornado sirens at 9:30 a.m. as a drill for Severe Weather Awareness Week.