Fire Alarms Are No Longer Alarming

by Mary Macrae ’14

It seems that most students and teachers think that every fire alarm is just a drill.  But what if there was an actual fire?  Would students continue to casually exit the school believing that they are free from danger or would they panic and run as fast as they could to the nearest exits in fear?

In my science class, when the last fire alarm went off, my teacher and fellow classmates nonchalantly exited the classroom at a leisurely pace assuming it was just a fire drill. No one was worried at all. The thought of an actual fire never crossed our minds.

With this current mindset, it could put students in real danger. If an actual fire happens, many students may not respond quickly or may even ignore it.  To prevent this from happening, the school should conduct random fire drills not known to the students. If we continue to think in this frame of mind who knows what will actually happen when there’s a real fire?