Schools

California Watch and Red Cross Bring Earthquake Safety to Broadway Elementary

Following up on a seismic safety series, a journalism watchdog group and local volunteers teach the students Monday about earthquake and fire safety.

About 150 Broadway Elementary students were treated to a Sesame Street-themed earthquake and fire safety puppet show Monday afternoon.

The show, put on by AmericCorps volunteers from the local Red Cross branch, used catchy songs and familiar puppet faces to teach the mostly kindergarten, first- and second-graders where to stand during an earthquake and to "stop, drop and roll."

"The last presentation I had, about anything [safety-related], was 30 years ago when I taught in Santa Monica," said Margaret Turner, the second-grade teacher at Broadway who brought the group to campus. "We never had any formal materials."

Find out what's happening in Venice-Mar Vistawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Since then, safety guidelines have changed. For example, people are no longer directed to get under a doorway during an earthquake. Instead, they should find a sturdy piece of furniture to get under, such as a desk or table.

Turner, who has been at Broadway Elementary for 27 years, coordinated the event with journalism watchdog group California Watch, which recently produced a comprehensive analysis of seismic safety at public schools in the state.

Find out what's happening in Venice-Mar Vistawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We wanted to do everything we could to provide information," said California Watch's Ashley Alvarado. "There's not a lot you can do if your child's school is on the AB 300 list or on a fault," she said. "But when we do these stories, we try to be solution-oriented."

In conjunction with the presentation, California Watch produced an educational coloring book, which is available here in English, Spanish, traditional and simplified Mandarin, and Vietnamese. So far, the group has given out about 36,000 coloring books, which have quizzes about safety, an emergency contact cutout and information about earthquakes.

"Everyone learned something as we went through this process," said Alvarado, who now says she keeps an emergency whistle under her desk at work, as well as on her keychain. 

To learn more about the California Watch project, go to www.CaliforniaWatch.org/readytorumble. If you are interested in a Red Cross presentation for your group, adults or children, you can find its programs at www.redcrossla.org.

Be sure to follow Venice Patch on Twitter and fan us on Facebook for more local news.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here