Fire alarms are a rite of passage experience at Irvington High School and,in the past few months, the frequency of fire alarms has been noticeably higher. Around 5-6 fire alarms went off in the past month, creating significant disruptions in the school system and the flow of classes.
Teachers have been unable to finish teaching their lessons; many lectures have also been interpreted. “They sometimes will impact my ability to teach, I will postpone things, like I had a couple during a quiz,” explains Mr. Einfeldt, a World History teacher. “So in all, it was like, it’s not fair to give one class the set amount of time, and also it pushed that back a little bit.” Students have also noted the fire alarms interrupting test-taking and reducing their focus. Gilbert Park, a junior, revealed, “But if a fire alarm rang randomly during a test, I think that can take away a lot of focus that you had, and it’s just going to make your mind go blank, which is a horrible thing.”
The cause? Vaping and smoking in the school bathrooms. “It’s somebody vaping in the bathroom, and we know it’s the same person just by certain characteristics that are happening,” states Mr. Hicks. “And we think we’ve caught the person, and we know what we’re doing.”
There are a few measures that have been taken to stop this issue and hopefully prevent it in the near future. Campus supervisors will help enforce the strict no vaping/smoking policy. Teachers now have to implement a policy of no restroom breaks before the last 10 minutes of class and the first 10 minutes of class, and increase the rigidity of signing in and out of class when leaving
To ensure all fire drill policies are initiated when a fire alarm goes off, the administration carries out a specific procedure in the interest of safety. When students are evacuating, the administration checks the bathrooms based on the location given by the panel. Then, they look for any smoke or fire. If it is a false alarm triggered by the student’s vaping or smoking, the fire trucks on the way are canceled before they arrive at Irvington. If the administration is unsure about the cause of the fire, the fire department arrives on campus. Teachers understand that the recurrent fire alarms are irritating, but understand that they are necessary. It is important for everyone to do their part in this situation. Students need to stay in class and the teachers need to monitor whoever is leaving their classes. In the future, Mr. Hicks plans on tracking out-of-class students on 5-star. Certain areas that have spiked in vaping or smoking activity are being more frequently regulated by campus supervisors.
To address this issue, Mr. Hicks would like to issue a message to students and staff responding: “It’s false alarms for the fire department, they’re having to come out when they could be doing other things, and just people aren’t being considerate of their colleagues. It’s a problem, and if people get caught, they’re going to be suspended. It’s one thing to be vaping. We don’t agree with vaping and all that, but whoever’s doing this is doing it on purpose. They’re purposely blowing it up into the fire alarm to cause a problem. And so we have to take that seriously, and suspend those responsible.”
