During the first lunch on a rainy Dec.1, burnt popcorn set off the fire alarm in NW108, and then the unnecessary confusion began as students tried to figure out where to evacuate after leaving the gates and entering the Staff parking lot, and the cold and wet weather seemed to add to the chaos and confusion.
Since the fire alarm happened during lunch, students at lunch were confused because they weren’t sure it was a fire evacuation. Some students in the cafeteria didn’t recognize the fire alarm as the school alarm due to an open mic lunch activity.
“There was an open mic, and someone was singing, so I couldn’t hear the fire alarm because of the singing. I saw the lights start flashing, but I thought someone was taking pictures. Then I saw everyone running out of the cafeteria, so I grabbed my stuff and left the cafeteria,” senior Alieu Sowe said.
Others thought that it was perhaps a lockdown because some students were running into the locker room.
Since students had never lined up with their fourth-period teachers for any kind of drill during this school year, students scrambled around searching for the clipboards with the names of their fourth-period teachers. To help, some teachers pulled up their evacuation lists and directed students to the general location of their fourth-period teachers.
Although the current evacuation process works for a drill, there are flaws to it when an actual emergency event occurs. One of the main causes of confusion was where students were meant to go. Many didn’t remember or know which teacher they belonged to when an emergency happened at lunch.
To avoid confusion in case of a future emergency, we should reorganize our system to create clarity and help students be accounted for more quickly. We think that the process of evacuating and lining up with different teachers should be changed.
Here are some solutions. Instead of numbering the teachers, the school should alphabetize them by their last name and use that to dictate where teachers stand, so students have an idea of where to find their teacher based on their last name.
Provide teachers with larger laminated signs to make it easier for students to spot their designated teacher.
Change the system so that students only have to remember one location and teacher to line up with. Designating the first-period teacher makes the most sense.
We recognize that not every student has a 6-period day; however, one solution would be for students without a first period to report to counselors in a specified location for attendance.
Another recommendation would be to clarify that it is a fire evacuation so that people do not think that it is a lockdown, since some students initially believed it was a lockdown. If the location of the fire is known, announce the location of the fire, so students don’t evacuate through the location of the fire.
In addition, perhaps the different alarms and announcements could be played for the school so that everyone knows what the various alarms and announcements sound like and how to respond.
One thing was clear about this emergency fire evacuation. Students need more practice, and the school needs an easier process.
