By Jack Ryan
News Editor
Sophomore Lauren Monsen was walking on the third floor to her 7th period class when all of sudden, the fire alarm goes off.
As Monsen is walking with down the stairs to the doors, she hears students around her saying, “Oh, my god the school is going to burn down.” In Monsen’s mind, she knew that it was just a regular fire drill. Once she saw science teacher Tim Casper around her, she felt a sense of relief and ease.
One thing that was surprising the Monsen is that the fire alarms went off in the middle of the passing periods and during Physics B and Physics C: Mechanics AP testing.
“It was an odd time for it to go off, especially during passing periods, [and during] AP testing,” Monsen said. “I would think that they would not want to interrupt the kids that were testing.”
The reason this fire drill was so out of the blue is that a faulty head came apart on a fire detector. This faulty head is attached to the whole fire alarm system in the school. When one faulty head comes detached from the system, it sends off an alarm to the all of the fire alarms making them go off.
With the fire alarms going off at random, Minter and the rest of the administration were surprised when it went off.
“We just acted in the moment,” Associate Principal Greg Minter said. “We had no way of knowing that it went bad, and it just triggered the alarm.”
Right away, Minter grabbed his radio and proceeded to communicate with Building and Grounds Supervisor Oscar Acevedo to ask him where the alarm was triggered. By looking at a board that tell them where the alarm went, they were able to detect where the alarm went off, which was in a maintenance closet in the gym.
After Minter had contacted Acevedo, he went to the source of the alarm and waited for the fire department to come. The reason he had to wait for the fire department is because the fire department has to be the one to shut off the alarm, and then give the “all clear” for students and faculty to come back in the building.
The administration handled the situation with ease, and they trusted that students and teachers that they would get out of the building as soon as possible.
“I think kids and teachers know that they have to exit the building. It doesn’t really matter what time it is, or where you’re at, it’s just time to go,” Minter said.
