The campus went into shelter-in-place during first period Tuesday morning due to a tornado warning that saw severe weather sweep through North Texas. Once the shelter-in-place order was issued, students and staff moved to their designated safe areas on campus. 

“My classroom is a safe room for bad weather,” American Studies teacher Swapna Gardner said. “About three other classes walked into our class, so we just all sat together and stayed calm. We listened to the news, and waited for the hold to be lifted.”

Having practiced various drills throughout the fall semester, everything went well according to assistant principal Jason Harris. 

“The school acted in a timely manner,” Harris said. “The teachers followed the shelter-in-place protocol that they should, and everybody, you know, all admin went through the building to ensure everybody was in the right place.”

Harris, who coordinates campus drills and safety, was one of the members of the school administration team who made the decision to activate the shelter-in-place.

“Shelter in place is when we have a tornado warning in our area which means there have been signs, or somebody has seen a tornado,” he said. “I was listening to it on the radio coming in.”

Weather awareness was on the minds of several Redhawks as forecasts called for the possibility of severe weather Tuesday morning. 

“I did know that there was going to be a weather issue this morning, so we always look ahead for the weather when we leave home,” Gardner said. “Anyway, so I had an idea, and then right before I left for work, my tornado watch already went off at home, so I knew that.”

Although students had to miss a portion of first period, the warning was brief and students were able to return to class quickly.

“We had the tornado weather watch and then we went into the gym, so it was about 30 minutes off,” senior Sanjheev Rao said. “And now if you look outside, it’s sunny and the place is almost dry, and we’re back in class.”