Recently, frequent fire alarm repetitions have been disrupting the Macdonald High School community. Teachers, students, and staff members have been complaining about the recent alarms. Throughout the past two months, the high school has experienced, excluding fire drills, six fire alarms. Jean Wang, vice principal of Macdonald High School, said, “There’s a panel that tells you where it (the fire alarm) goes off in the school, and so what we try to determine is whether or not the system is faulty, if it is a hypersensitive alarm, or the wiring.”
The school was formerly connected to Huerta Middle School’s fire alarm system, so every time they had an alarm, we also had to follow them out.
One of the main reasons for the fire alarms constantly going off is because of vaping. Wang said, “We look to see where it’s triggered, if it is bathroom-related or classroom-related.”
Due to vaping, if an alarm is triggered near the restrooms, the school checks the cameras to see if any suspicious individuals leave the bathroom. Once they find the individual, they conduct a safety search. “Now we are checking belongings to see if there are any smoker Vape products on campus or in their belongings,” Wang said.
Aside from vaping, heat – including sudden temperature changes or smoke and hypersensitivity can trigger the alarms.
Fire alarms can also negatively impact class time. One Junior student, Vivian Wong, said, “They can be time-consuming, especially when there’s a test going on, and it wastes test time, which teachers won’t give back.”
Another issue the alarm going off poses is that the school may be charged by the fire department/marshal if it continues to receive false alarms.
The case is similar to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” Wang said, “If we find out who the person is that’s setting off the alarm for sure, definitively, that person will be paying a $10,000 fee, so this isn’t really something to joke around about.”
The frequent fire alarms have been a mystery since the school’s opening, but now students have their answer.
