At least five times a year, custodians and administrators at schools in Duluth and statewide get to play God. Or at least wizard, acting like the man behind the curtain, pulling the levers and ruining days in the name of public safety.

By law, Minnesota schools must hold a minimum of five fire drills each year. That’s five fully authorized panic attacks, scheduled on random days and times, regardless of whether little Jimmy is mid-algebra or Miss Grant is choking back tears at the end of “Charlotte’s Web.”

While I’m not familiar with the procedure followed at every school, at my school and many others, these sacred drills are logged like CIA ops — date, time, weather, evacuation speed — and filed away on a top shelf above the pencil sharpener. Bureaucrats in St. Paul rest easy knowing Ro

See Full Page