Tornado Warning

A tornado warning means a tornado has actually been sighted or has touched down in District 15 or the surrounding area. When a tornado warning is issued, sirens are activated by Palatine, Rolling Meadows, and Hoffman Estates police departments. This warning will be a three-minute, sustained, steady blast.

If school is in session when notification of a tornado warning is received from the National Weather Service via the schools’ weather alert receivers, children will be required to remain in school. School personnel should stop all outside activity, and allow no one in areas under large roof spans, such as gymnasiums.

Each school has devised a “take cover” plan that is best suited to its unique building characteristics, and principals and emergency management have cooperatively identified the safest places to take shelter in each building. When a warning is issued, all personnel and students should leave their classrooms, closing the doors on their way out, and go directly to the area designated as the tornado shelter. Once there, children must sit on the floor with their backs to the wall and their heads in their folded arms.

Under no circumstances will classes be dismissed as long as a tornado warning is in effect. Once the warning has expired and the danger has passed, an “all clear” message and updates on the status of the emergency weather conditions will be sent from the superintendent’s office, at which point children can be dismissed.

If a tornado warning occurs at regular dismissal time, every effort should be made to bring the students back into the building and provide them shelter until the “all clear” signal is given. At that time, walkers can be dismissed, and bused children can be picked up at their schools in the normal sequence on a delayed basis.