Oakland Tech is experiencing an unprecedented rate of fire alarms, with six alarms going off in the first five weeks of the new school year. Fire alarms are a part of life at Oakland Tech and any other high school, but this alarming trend could spark a dangerous precedent for students and cause more disruptions for the school.
Ms. Haugen, after over thirty years of experience at Oakland Tech, has noticed that this frequency of fire alarms disrupts the entire school’s mood and prompts the question: “Why should we focus if the fire alarm could go off at any moment?” If this pattern of fire alarms continues into October and November, the entire school will become exponentially more affected. The attitudes of students and teachers take a hit, as there is a pervasive feeling of uncertainty every period: “Could this be the period where the alarm goes off again?” This type of thinking can create a challenging learning environment, which can affect the remainder of the school year.
Ms. Haugen noted that the fire alarms not only cause mental and emotional distress for students and teachers, but they also lead to lost time both inside and outside the classroom. Ms. Haugen remarked that her fourth period class lost over an entire period of instructional time with her, including valuable time to finish the iReady, a state-required test.
“About a third of my fourth period class has to come in at lunch to finish it,” Ms. Haugen said. “The two thirds who did finish it yesterday were wet and distracted when they finished it because we’d been out on the field.”
Ninth-grade students and teachers are especially struggling with the siren surge of fire alarms. Sol Hhouse English and Ethnic Studies teacher Ms. Vaughn explained how the alarms set a “precedent with ninth graders that it’s fun to waste time because they’re new to high school, and now this is normal for them.” Ms. Vaughn discussed how these fire alarms impact a significant aspect of her job: teaching ninth graders procedures to be successful high school students. She has concerns about how the fire alarms will affect her students in the future, saying that “every time it happens, they cheer, I’m like that’s just kind of sad…It’s not what we are hoping to instill in our ninth graders.”
The patience being burned by the fire alarms does not just affect teachers and staff; admin is also dealing with numerous challenges. Dr. Woolridge stated in an email that there is a panel where all the fire alarms are located, and when one goes off, admin gets notified where it was triggered. They investigate the location based on the panel’s information, but oftentimes, the perpetrator is gone. Additionally, the admin must inform the fire department not to respond because there is no active fire; however, the school still incurs charges if the fire department comes to reset the alarm after it has gone off. Dr. Woolridge says that the best thing students can do to help is “encourage students not to smoke and vape on campus and that trying to be secretive about doing it (most times in bathroom spaces) creates larger problems as this leads to the smoke alarms being set off.”
Students, teachers, and admin all have their complaints. But no matter what, all three levels of the Oakland Tech community should work together to put a stop to the heated trend of fire alarms.