For the first time in about a decade, Algonquin has implemented new emergency and safety procedures that are commonly done in primary schools — lockdown drills.
Starting March 10-11 the drills will be executed yearly as part of an evolution of emergency procedures conducted by the safety and security services at the college.
Luke Furmidge, emergency management coordinator of the Risk Management department said that new drills have already been rolled out at the Perth and Pembroke campuses to a positive reception from students, many of whom are already familiar with the lockdown terminology and remember the drills from elementary and middle school.
“We’re hoping to bring the comfort level up for everyone in the college and really keep that evolutionary process and continuous learning process going,” said Furmidge.
Furmidge has been working at the college for two years with safety and security services to slowly build the emergency management program using the extra resources and says that implementing the lockdown drills are an important part of the new program.
“We started to roll out the initial material last winter with the Registar’s Office we did some stuff and then it’s been evolving since and we’ve made some revisions and updated it and even now we’re going through and we’re taking feedback and we’ll be taking feedback after the drills on Thursday/Friday and we’ll be updating our program and then this will become part of the regular schedule of activities that happen at the college just like our fire drills and things like that,” said Furmidge.