DICKSON, Tenn. (WKRN) – Severe Weather Awareness Week continued with a statewide tornado drill in Tennessee schools Wednesday.

News 2 visited The Discovery School in Dickson to watch them do their drill.

The good thing about tornado safety in schools is that most of the walls are made of big thick concrete blocks.

In the past, the students and faculty would take shelter in an interior hallway, but recently, experts have found that smaller rooms like a bathroom are actually safer than being out in a hallway.

“We’ve worked with our emergency management, the police and the fire department to figure out the best place to put our students in an emergency situation to keep them safe,” explained Rachel Storment, Principal of The Discovery School. “And we found that the bathrooms, the office areas, the spaces basically with no windows, are the safest places.”

Once the kids are in place, they are to get into a crouching position and put their arms over their heads to protect themselves.

The tornado drill is performed two times a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. The kids have all been trained to be prepared for emergency situations like this. They are told that there is to be no talking and to listen to the instructions from their teachers on what to do and which way to go.

It’s also important to teach the kids how to stay calm, should the real thing take place.

“We practice so that when the event happens, we try to limit the anxiety as much as we can,” Storment pointed out. “So, as calm as [the faculty] can stay, we find that helps the students. So, practicing helps, and talking about those expectations during drills really helps the students to maintain that sense of calm.”

The principal and all of the staff feel that exercises like these drills are a tremendous responsibility.

“We’re here not only to educate the students, but safety is a big priority for our students,” Storment said. “And we want to keep them as safe as possible in any situation. So, that’s why we practice these drills.”

It all comes down to being prepared.