Keeping Safe From Chemical Weapons Hermiston-Area Schools Completing Plan For Pumping Filtered Air Into Classrooms

In the Cold War years of the 1950s, school kids were told to crawl under their desks in case of a nuclear attack.

But there was no place to run from one of those, nor is there from an accident at the stockpile of chemical weapons near here.

However area schools are completing an over-pressurization program unlike any in the country designed to keep students safe should an accident take place.

Over-pressurization involves pumping filtered air into safe areas within schools, where students and school personnel would go during a chemical release emergency.

The build-up of pressure in those areas is designed to keep chemical agents out.

The area will have to be kept chemical-free, excluding people who may carry traces of the chemical agents.

If mom or dad come pounding on the school’s door in an emergency, safety planners say, they can’t come in.

“This is quite a bit more complicated than what we think of as fire drills,” said Darce Driskel, human resources director for Hermiston School District.

Such a release at the Umatilla Chemical Munitions Depot is considered extremely unlikely, but the precautions have a worst-case scenario in mind.

Because students and staff may be confined for many hours, planning must include food, water and toilet facilities, access to information and storage of first-aid materials and personal medications, some of which may need to be refrigerated.

Driskel said safety committees in each of Hermiston’s seven schools have begun formulating the drills, but won’t institute them until the over-pressurization projects are complete in October.

“When we do this, we want to do it right,” said Darce Driskel, district human resources manager. “We want the drill to be ready to go and everybody to be on the same page.”