DRACUT, MA - During a budget discussion between the Board of Selectmen and the local School Committee in Dracut in late April, the School Committee Chair implied that teachers could shoulder the weight of addressing a fire inside a school as opposed to firefighters amid discussions of budget compromise within the city’s expenses.
On April 29, the Dracut Board of Selectmen and School Committee Joint Meeting took place, where the topic of budgeting for fiscal year 2027 needed to be addressed. Representatives of the town and officials representing the local schools were trying to reach a compromise regarding financing first responders and keeping schools properly funded.
Selectman Alison Genest was among those trying to achieve a compromise with those representing the local school district, saying, “But we have to realize that the budget is for the entire town and not just for the schools, and that's why I ask that the school committee please consider sharing in the burden. These cuts should not just be coming from the town’s side.”
Selectman Genest further referenced past meetings where the topic of underfunded first responders presents an ongoing issue, rhetorically asking what the schools would do in the event of an emergency where an underfunded fire department lacked the resources to respond appropriately.
“I'm concerned, and I said this at a recent meeting, we keep cutting police, fire; we had the fire chief in front of us last night,” Selectman Genest stated, adding, “We are woefully understaffed in every place in town, every department in town. Who is going to save the children when the school catches on fire?”
School Committee Chair Renee Young promptly responded with, “The teachers, actually,” when pressed on who would rescue children in the event of a fire at a school, resulting in some applause from the observers at the meeting.
While the witty response from Young may serve as a welcome soundbite to those who champion the profession of teaching, the concept is both shortsighted and slightly aggrandizing. Indeed, teachers and schools participate in things like fire drills for the sake of establishing a modicum of situational preparedness in the event of an emergency. But educators aren’t formally trained in breaches and extrications, search-and-rescue, and entering structures engulfed in flames to rescue victims.
Every drill conducted in schools, be they fire, natural disaster, or an external/internal hostile threat, focuses on either coordinated evacuation or the seeking of safe shelter inside the school – both of which require strict adherence from the student body to be successful. Needless to say, while the conducted drills aim to keep things simple, the innumerable variables where students could be left vulnerable can’t be reconciled with simple drills.
To believe, let alone suggest in an open meeting, that schoolteachers could somehow pick up the slack from an underfunded fire department betrays a wild sense of hubris and a distorted perception of reality.
On April 29, the Dracut Board of Selectmen and School Committee Joint Meeting took place, where the topic of budgeting for fiscal year 2027 needed to be addressed. Representatives of the town and officials representing the local schools were trying to reach a compromise regarding financing first responders and keeping schools properly funded.
Selectman Alison Genest was among those trying to achieve a compromise with those representing the local school district, saying, “But we have to realize that the budget is for the entire town and not just for the schools, and that's why I ask that the school committee please consider sharing in the burden. These cuts should not just be coming from the town’s side.”
Selectman Genest further referenced past meetings where the topic of underfunded first responders presents an ongoing issue, rhetorically asking what the schools would do in the event of an emergency where an underfunded fire department lacked the resources to respond appropriately.
“I'm concerned, and I said this at a recent meeting, we keep cutting police, fire; we had the fire chief in front of us last night,” Selectman Genest stated, adding, “We are woefully understaffed in every place in town, every department in town. Who is going to save the children when the school catches on fire?”
School Committee Chair Renee Young promptly responded with, “The teachers, actually,” when pressed on who would rescue children in the event of a fire at a school, resulting in some applause from the observers at the meeting.
While the witty response from Young may serve as a welcome soundbite to those who champion the profession of teaching, the concept is both shortsighted and slightly aggrandizing. Indeed, teachers and schools participate in things like fire drills for the sake of establishing a modicum of situational preparedness in the event of an emergency. But educators aren’t formally trained in breaches and extrications, search-and-rescue, and entering structures engulfed in flames to rescue victims.
Every drill conducted in schools, be they fire, natural disaster, or an external/internal hostile threat, focuses on either coordinated evacuation or the seeking of safe shelter inside the school – both of which require strict adherence from the student body to be successful. Needless to say, while the conducted drills aim to keep things simple, the innumerable variables where students could be left vulnerable can’t be reconciled with simple drills.
To believe, let alone suggest in an open meeting, that schoolteachers could somehow pick up the slack from an underfunded fire department betrays a wild sense of hubris and a distorted perception of reality.
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