As a result of two false fire alarms on Friday Jan. 22, Principal Joel Stembridge added 20 extra minutes to the school day on Monday, Jan. 25 to make up for “lost educational time.” This was the first extended school day in years as a result of pulled fire alarms.
“The last time I remember having an extended school day for a fire alarm was four years ago, when we had a series of fire alarms and we had teachers guarding each alarm,” Assistant Principal Mary Scott said.
According to Stembridge, both North and South principals have always added extra time to the school day when a fire alarm is pulled. “North had a pulled alarm earlier this year, and they [extended their school day],” Stembridge said. “My understanding is that South principals back to Mike Welch also implemented this policy.”
Immediately after the first alarm, Stembridge made an announcement regarding the extended school day. He notified the student body via e-mail regarding the second extension.
Stembridge emphasized that this extra time was not a punishment. “Extending the day [was] not supposed to be a punishment, but a signal that we are serious about our academic time,” Stembridge said. “We are not going to allow a single student to disrupt the whole school’s learning time. I’m sure it feels like a punishment, but it’s not supposed to be punishment. It’s just simple.”
Despite this, some students felt the extension was a penalty for the entire school. “[Stembridge] punished the whole South community for the action of the one person. That’s just going to counteract what he wants to do,” senior Mike Zissman said. “[He made] a mistake. I don’t think that there would have been a second fire alarm if he had not extended the day after the first one.”
Scott understands students’ frustration with and misunderstanding of the extended day. “When I was in school, if a student behaved improperly in a class, the teacher would punish the whole class,” Scott said. “I know how it feels when one student messes it up for the whole student body. I first perceived [the extension] as a punishment also, but people convinced me that this was a right way to go. I quickly realized that it was not imposing authority, but trying to restore the missed learning time and sending a strong message about how unsafe the action was.”
Like Scott, senior Erika Eldrenkamp understood the extension. “I’m not going to lie. I did have problems with rides and stuff when the day was extended,” Eldrenkamp said. “But I think it’s good that [Stembridge has] the incentive to stop people from pulling the alarm ... Most people don’t know that [extending the school day] was a protocol.”
Math teacher Leslie Quattrini was immediately in favor of the extension. “We had spent four days studying for a midyear that was going to 10 percent of [the students’] grades,” Quattrini said. “It was incredibly frustrating when a false fire alarm interrupted the students’ concentration. It’s very hard to get back into that mind set.” While Quattrini said the extension did not solve her students’ interrupted midyear, she believes the extension “was necessary so the person who pulled the fire alarm could know they just can’t get away with stuff like that.”
Due to administrative changes over the years, the protocol for extending the school day has not been enforced during previous years, making this extension seem like a punishment.
“In the past four years we’ve done three principal searches and had two principals,” Scott said. “So many changes in the administration has caused some regulations to slip through such as A Block tardy, eating in the hallways and extending the school days.”
With Stembridge’s plan to “enforce rules,” South is facing changes that should have already been place.
“I’m not saying that the past administration didn’t work hard to enforce rules,” Quattrini said. “But I feel supported now, if something goes wrong I’ll have somebody behind who will try to fix it. I knew that the support existed before, but now I feel its presence.”
Although students understand the hazards and disturbances the fire drill caused, some still believe that extending the school day was not the correct approach to the problem.
“To be completely honest for the past four years we’ve had pulled fire drills and they didn’t do anything about it, and it has worked I don’t understand why this time was any different,” Zissman said.
However, Eldrenkamp believes the extension could become standard. “Initially people are going to be frustrated, but four years from now when this policy has been around it will seem completely normal.”
The second alarm heavily affected the pre-school students, who had been sleeping. South’s pre-school director Melissa Hammel said fire alarms are always detrimental to pre-schoolers’ schedule. “Pre-school children are very used to structure and routine throughout their day. They have a schedule that makes them feel grounded, more secure and safe because they know what to expect,” Hammel said. “When there’s a fire drill, regardless of the time it happens, it’s a huge intrusion to their schedule. It’s a real disruption to what they know they should be doing at a certain time.”
According to Hammel the fact that the children were sleeping during the second alarm made it that much more harmful. “Picture this: loud noise, flashing light, I’m sound asleep and all of a sudden there are people trying to wake me up. I don’t have shoes on. It’s cold outside. I’m disoriented. I don’t know what’s happening,” Hammel said. “It’s so disrespectful to a segment of our high school population that is vulnerable and requires us to advocate for them.”
Three year-old, pre-school student Kate Arnaboldi was asleep when the alarm went off. “I was asleep and then the bell rang. We had to go out but there was a huge puddle and so the high school friends and teachers carried us over the puddle,” she said. “It was really scary and we walked farther and farther because everyone had to … and when I got back I couldn’t go back to nap because the teacher said we had to keep our shoes on.”
Hammel believes the student who pulled the alarm never thought about the pre-school students. “The person [who] pulled the alarm was completely egocentric and very focused on their own individuality and didn’t think about anyone in the building. If they can’t see beyond their own egocentric world of course they’re not thinking about the rest of the student body,” she said. “I would love to sit down and talk to the person who pulled both alarms and just say ‘do you know how disrespectful it is? Do you know how harmful it is to children?’”
Going forward, Stembridge is taking steps to find whoever pulled the alarms. He requested that all teachers send him a list of students absent during the last block on Friday.
“This is a serious offense; the student will probably be suspended and will be turned over to the police,” Scott said.
“The bottom line: Students need to know that pulling a fire alarm is a serious matter, is illegal and will not result in a reduction in learning time,” Stembridge said.
