The Department of Education is set to hold this Thursday, 3 September, a nationwide school safety drill that would prepare campuses against possible shootings.

“So tomorrow, September 3, we will be having a national kick off for the simultaneous school safety drill,” said DepEd Undersecretary Malcol Garma during the Kapihan sa Manila Prince.

Garma said the kick off will happen in one of the schools in Bulacan that will also be attended by  

The undersecretary said the drill will start at 9 am simultaneously in public schools with the kick off starting at a in Bulacan.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla is expected to present during the drill in the school in Bulacan.

Garma said the drill will do away with using a person who will roleplay as an active shooter.

He explained that to use of a person acting as an active shooter, “According to the experts, this might cause psychological trauma sa ating mga principal learners natin.”

(According to the experts, this might cause psychological trauma to the principal learners.)

Instead, he said a distinct alarm will be triggered and the school personnel and students will have to respond appropriately to what they were instructed to do.

“‘Pag sinabi ho nating drills we would like to see how the school responds to this kind of alarm,” said the undersecretary.

(When we talk about drills, we want to find out how the school and law enforcement coordinate, what will the teachers and students do, and what will the school’s actions be after an incident.

Garma said the consent of the parents have been sought for their children to participate in the drills.

“We would like to encourage our parents to make their children join para alam din nung mga anak nila kung sakaling may mangyari dito,” he urged.

(We would like to encourage our parents to make their children join so that their children would know what to do.)

The drills was supposed to have taken place last Aug. 24 but got postponed.

The DepEd official explained that one of the cause of the postponement was the inclement weather in the past days.

“The other reason is that we have to incorporate ‘yung mga suggestions, recommendations ng ating mga experts,” he added.

(The other reaso is that we have to incorporate the suggestions and recommendations of our experts.)