Earthquake drill too taxing for 75 Parañaque students
At least 75 students of the Parañaque National High School-Tambo Extension were rushed to the hospital on Thursday after they complained of fainting spells, dizziness and exhaustion following an earthquake drill on the school grounds.
School officials suspended classes for the day as firemen responded to calls for assistance from the distraught students.
F01 Christian Cornejo said the students were waiting outside the school in Barangay Tambo after they had been “evacuated” as part of the drill when the incident happened.
The drill took place between 12:30 and 1 p.m.
Citing accounts from witnesses, Cornejo said some students reported that they felt dizzy from the heat, while others were on the verge of fainting.
“And when they saw their classmates falling down, the others began to panic,” he said.
Around 75 students were rushed to the hospital—60 of them were rushed to the Parañaque Community Hospital, while the other 15 were taken to the Las Piñas District Hospital.
It was not clear whether anyone had been discharged as of press time.
Cornejo added there were no reports of people being physically injured in the incident.
“The school authorities were at fault,” the firefighter said, adding the latter did not coordinate with local officials when they conducted the drill.
If the event had been coordinated, ambulances would have been stationed in the area, he added.
“There would also have been an expert in disaster response supervising the drill,” he said.
Cornejo said school officials countered by saying that they sent the barangay a letter notifying them of the activity, but also admitted that they were supposed to hold the drill on Friday, not Thursday.
“But we haven’t checked if they did indeed send the letter to the barangay,” he added.
The Inquirer tried to reach school officials for comment, but Urbano Agustin, principal of Parañaque National High School-Main, said there was no phone line on the Tambo campus because the school was a new building.
