When a tornado siren sounds, every parent wants his or her children safe. Often, however, parents must rely on teachers and school administrators to do it for them.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees.

“If we were blessed last night, it was that there were no kids here because there would have been glass all over those kids, because we would have had them in halls, thinking it was safe,” Republic Elementary 3 Principal Cynthia Crabtree said on Jan. 8, a day after a tornado blew part of the roof off her school.

“The catastrophe really causes us to reexamine what we're doing,” said Principal Gary Tew of Pittman Elementary School in Springfield.

In response to recent close calls in Republic, where the roof collapsed during a tornado, and Lebanon, where a tornado tossed over a school bus just minutes before classes ended for the day, KY3 News wanted to know how schools respond when a potentially deadly storm is on the way.

In most districts, including Springfield, school administrators are required to have a written tornado drill plan. It turns out some of those plans haven't been updated in years.

“We've been doing this since I've been here, and probably much longer -- putting them in hallways,” said Tew.

“I would probably fill these rooms,” said Greene County Emergency Manager Ryan Nicholls, pointing to rooms that are safer than hallways.

For our investigation, we brought together some willing emergency managers and district leaders to do full assessments of their schools -- a process that had already begun in some districts, including Ash Grove.

Room by room, hall by hall, emergency managers pointed out hazards and debunked the common misconception that simply sending kids to hallways is the best option.

Every school we visited had at least one hallway that could be dangerous for children. In most of the schools, emergency managers found safer alternatives.

At Pittman, the assessment revealed several classrooms, storage closets and even bathrooms are safer than the hall. In Ash Grove, one hallway is safer than certain classrooms.

Finding a safe room is just the first step. Schools must then identify things within the room that could be dangerous, like a bookshelf, unless it's bolted to the wall.

“Anything that can fall or fly, we try to avoid,” said Nicholls.

While no two schools are the same, emergency managers say all schools should consider:
--not putting kids in halls with windows or glass doors on either end;
-- avoiding ceilings with roof spans of more than 40 feet;
--keeping kids out of rooms near electric and gas utilities;
--laminating windows;
--replacing glass doors with wood or metal ones;
--building alcoves; and
--bolting bookshelves and lockers to walls.

“Schools aren't going to have a room with four walls and nothing else, so we try to take the best we can,” said Nicholls.

Pittman is already implementing changes after meeting with emergency managers. For example, kids now bypass the halls -- and head to safer spots to ride out storms.

“We want to keep up to par. We owe it to kids, the community and ourselves to do the right thing,” said Tew.

Nicholls says he's already received calls from several schools in Springfield to request a walk-through.

If you'd like information about the tornado drill plan at your child's school, call the school office.