CITY SCHOOL DRILL SPEEDILY EMPTIES MOST CAMPUSES.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - With people edgy over terrorism, earthquakes and other ever-present dangers, thousands of children emptied out of classrooms Thursday as alarms rang out in a citywide school disaster drill.

Gusty 60-mph winds limited the drill to indoor duck-and-cover exercises at some campuses. But at most campuses throughout the Hart and Sulphur Springs school districts, students reacted to a fictitious 7.0 earthquake at about 9 a.m. with a full evacuation.

``We cleared all our campuses within 10 minutes,'' said Pat Willett, a William S. Hart Union High School District spokeswoman.

A message on Hart's Web site flashed: ``In a real emergency this site would provide information on campus evacuations, student pickup procedures, curtailed student transportation and other pertinent details.''

Santa Clarita officials, who organized the interdistrict drill, also got into the act and tested emergency phones and ham radio bands as the school districts reported in.

``There is no time like the present (to practice),'' city emergency services coordinator Donna Nuzzi said. ``(In a disaster) you have to get an assessment of the situation. It's a coordination exercise. We're testing our lines of communication.''

Pam Mills, a parent and safety consultant who suggested the drill to city and school officials, said local channels of communication must be kept open because community residents cannot expect immediate help from outside the area.

``Santa Clarita is nowhere near Los Angeles or Van Nuys,'' she said. ``If there is an emergency, we're pretty much on our own out here.''

But not everyone performed a full-blown drill. Newhall School District only tested emergency phone lines to avoid alarming elementary students already anxious about the war with Iraq.

``They felt it would be best for the children right now,'' Newhall Elementary Assistant Principal Laura Sanders said. ``When we had the conflict with Afghanistan, the students were nervous, and they weren't sure how far away the conflict was. We want to give them some time before they do another emergency drill.''

School officials decided to skip the evacuation drill at Rosedell Elementary in Saugus, where children endured an actual lock-down Monday after a police foot pursuit cut through campus.

``The kids have done very well in terms of getting back to the swing of things,'' Assistant Principal Susan Bender said.