Today shortly after the beginning of 2nd hour,  students and faculty were surprised by the screech of the fire alarm. Students dropped what they were doing to exit the building into the cold morning temperatures.

Frannie Haller, junior, gave her thoughts in the midst of all the confusion

“I’m not sure if it’s a drill or not because it happened right at the beginning of second hour, normally they would give us 10 or 15 minutes to settle into a class, and I think it’s kind of funny how everyone is cheering every time the fire alarm sounds,” she said.

Though fire drills are repeated often throughout the year it is very rare to see the fire alarms sound for a real event.

“It’s usually that some kid knocked over a Bunsen Burner in the lab or they’re burning their cinnamon rolls in one of the culinary arts class,” Logan Dorsey, junior, said.

Once it was clear to return to the building and everyone resettled into their classroom, Associate Principal Dr. Stephen Hankins announced the alarm sounded in response to a smoke detector in the gym.

“We knew exactly where it was, we actually had eyeballs on it before the fire department got here,” Hankins said.

A similar situation occurred last semester, when the fire alarm sounded minutes before the final bell, Hankins complimented the way students cooperated

“Last semester I was just pleased with our students in that school was over, you guys[the students] said ‘we could technically leave but they’re asking us to stay so we’ll stay’ which was really neat to see,” he said.

The repetition of the many safety drills throughout the years have, according to Hankings, turned the evacuation actions “muscle memory”, leading to the smooth evacuation process.

“Staff did great, kids did great, as always,” Hankings said.