The now familiar sound of the fire alarm went off again today, while this one was a planned drill to meet requirements, the majority of the other times were unplanned and set off by actions such as students pulling the alarm or vaping triggering the alarm.

With the number of fire alarms happening multiple times a week, both students and staff are confused and are questioning what the causes are for the excessive amount of unplanned alarms. People all over the school have all voiced an opinion and have given input on the matter.  

“It feels like a lot of it is due to vaping, and it’s a hassle going in and out of school during work time,” senior Noah Ewing said.  

Not only does it affect students and their valuable work time in class, but it also affects teacher’s plans. The alarms interrupt the overall flow of an average day at school by pushing plans back and throwing off the whole school’s schedule.

“The fire alarms have taken away time for my students to rehearse in class” drama teacher Emily Mokrycki said. 

She isn’t the only teacher with an opinion on how it makes her feel. Multiple teachers, staff, and students have expressed concerns about the repeating alarm blaring through the halls each week.

“Well, it really puts a crimp on our daily plans, especially when it’s unplanned,” math teacher Jessica Jolkowski said. 

There are some confirmed causes of the false alarms. Principal Darren Rasmussen has been keeping track of the causes the past few weeks.

“Student activity, fire alarms being pulled and even steam from the dishwasher in the cafeteria were a few of the causes,” Rasmussen said. 

Many are wondering what the school is doing to try and reduce the amount of false alarms. The staff is currently focusing on regularly monitoring bathrooms and using the security camera system to reduce misbehaviors and to catch kids that cause the alarms. The hope is that their plan will help to decrease the amount of alarms and taking the last week into account, their efforts have seemed to work with only one alarm that was actually planned.