The Bell Who Cried Fire
November 17, 2021
By Kezziah Hernandez
Co-Editor in Chief
The amount of false alarm fire bells we’ve had this school year have led students to take the alarms as bluff. Regardless of the incapability to identify a false alarm and a planned drill, having consistent inaccurate bells has made students not feel the need to follow through with fire regulations. These unexpected alarms went off September 7th, 21st, October 1st; 18th, (all during the second period). Later on the 18th, there was yet another false alarm during lunch. There have also been alarms after school while classes were not in session on September 7th at 3:00, the most recent fire alarm was on November 5th at the end of lunch the same day as the Great California ShakeOut.
“I feel like the false alarm fire bells are very disruptive to class time, as that could be used for getting work done,” says Emma Morgan, an 11th grade QUEST student. She continues that teachers themselves don’t follow through with regulations on the fire alarms due to their faultiness. “I feel like [following safety rules] depends on the teacher, if the teachers say we should stay, I would and if not I would follow their instructions. I would rather be safe than sorry, but I think this is all unnecessary, it should only be necessary if the fire is real.”
Kyle Heinrich, the Dean of Students says, “it is annoying, it is disruptive, and especially at a school this big, it’s a lot of moving pieces getting kids out and getting kids back in. Ideally, we want to be prepared and want to know what to do in the event of a true genuine fire versus sitting around and waiting.”
In regards to the reasons for these false alarms, Heinrich, admin supporting emergency preparedness says, “Sometimes in the 800 buildings, it’s science! [The smoke detectors] are super sensitive there. It could be the matter of science conducting an experiment, and that’s where we see most of it. It hasn’t happened this year but it could be the matter of someone just burning popcorn! Things like that could trigger it, with the new 1100 building it’s a new system we [administration] are still trying to figure out that system.”
Heinrich wants students to know, “It is being taken seriously, as soon as they are set off and is being investigated immediately, we have panels to identify if it’s coming from what building, whatever may trigger it we immediately pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from and we fly into action and are grasping a better understanding of what’s triggering them and what to look for. These false alarms are not being taken lightly by us by no means, I know teachers and students perhaps may be reluctant to evacuate, but we are scrambling like mad, it is a big liability, it’s now become a safety issue, we got 3500 students, 150 teachers, lots of adults on campus we don’t just brush it off like ‘okay everyone just sit back and wait’ we fly into action. We want to limit the amount of disruption, alot of times we see that these are false alarms but we shouldn’t take these false alarms lightly, and everyone should be of the mindset of we must evacuate rather its genuine or false we need to do what we’ve been trained to do within procedures and protocols. To know our safest routes, alternatives routes, things we must consider in emergencies.”
“If we were negligent on that front I couldn’t live with myself or get sleep at night knowing I didn’t do everything I could to provide the safest environment for everyone here on campus in other things besides fire drills or false alarms, I want to take in consideration every possible emergency here on campus.”
Millikan should be appreciative of the sensitive fire alarms because although the bells’ faulty alarms waste class time, it’s safer to have working delicate alarms that will warn you of a danger than to have an alarm unable to detect any smoke on campus. And as Heinrich said, we must all have that mindset to do what we were trained to do for our safety.
“In my 27 years, knock on wood, I’ve never had to experience a real fire, it has always been a drill or false alarm and let’s keep it that way.”
Photo of fire extinguisher
Jackson Noel • Jan 4, 2022 at 2:31 pm
I think this is a really well written article. It is crazy to think about the amount of false fire alarms we have had.
Sam Al-mulla • Jan 4, 2022 at 12:31 pm
When I read The Bell Who cried Fire by Kezziah Hernandez I totally agreed with her reasoning that the excess fire drills have made us lazy. Now when a fire drill rings kids will probably think of it as a fake and just the fire alarm going off, I am definitely one of these people since when the fire alarm goes off I just think, ” great another false fire drill”.
Damien • Jan 4, 2022 at 12:08 pm
I don’t have very much to say just really wanted to say thank you for taking time to discuss this issue.
Scott • Jan 4, 2022 at 11:58 am
Are fire departments alerted when a false alarm goes off?
Taylor Koet • Jan 3, 2022 at 12:13 pm
I am glad that people care about this issue that has disrupted our days. It has been tiring to hear the alarm and get up and leave then come straight back in 5 minutes.
Raelyn Ponce • Dec 13, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
In issue 2/2021 (published November, 17 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire”. The article is about the many fire alarms we have had throughout this school year. Since the beginning of the school year I have been keeping track of the alarms by date, time, and period. Most of them happen during second period, but there have been some after school and during lunch. Starting from the first fire alarm on September 7th to November 18th there have been 14 alarms that have gone off. Five have happened during second period, one during third, two during lunch, four after school, one during passing period to seventh, and one mandatory one during fourth period. As stated in the article they are disrupted to class and getting everyone on the field is time consuming. Which I agree on, but in my opinion I would always rather be safe than sorry. I believe that the school should look into what’s setting it off so they could stop the disruption during class and the feeling of us students getting used to alarms going off. Sooner or later we won’t see it as a real alarm when it really is one. I also wonder if teachers are getting tired of the alarms too? They have to stop their lessons to walk their students outside then back inside after only a couple of minutes. On top of that, are the alarms just from the 11000 building? It is a new building and this has never happened before this extreme. Hopefully the staff are looking into it and have it under control. Thank you for taking time to read this.
Sincerely,
Raelyn Ponce, Grade 11
Tiffany Murdoch • Dec 13, 2021 at 10:20 pm
In Issue 2/2021 (published November 17th, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez Row an article titled “ the Bell who cried fire”. The article talks about how lately we have had a lot of false fire alarms and the different opinions from staff and students. It also talks about how this has been affecting safety on campus. This has become a huge issue for many because when you’re in class trying to get your work done and you suddenly hear the fireball go off you have to leave class and go to the field which leads to destructing learning. This creates a bigger problem because you’re missing important parts of class. since so many alarms have gone off this school year, kids and staff have now started to take the fire alarms less seriously. but what happens if we have an actual fire, would kids and staff take it seriously? It’s comforting to hear the stuff I can do like the fire alarms has an issue and to say that they are trying to figure out a way to fix it. This issue is so important to get fixed as soon as possible because not only is it affecting learning, it’s also affecting safety.
Niya Patterson • Dec 2, 2021 at 12:09 pm
November 29, 2021
Dear Corydon Editor,
In issue 2/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezzaih Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire”. This article mentions the urgency of any type of fire alarm going off even if false. The fire drills were confusing for us students , with us not knowing if we should follow through with a drill or act as if it’s nothing. Are counselors and staff members going to require the whole school to get through with false alarms every time they happen? Or just once and a while? If we do not follow ( teachers and students) will we be punished or will it not be a big concern? I suggest that we have an email sent out or some type of announcement to let everyone know what to do in these situations so there is no confusion or chaos. I’m glad there is someone writing about what is going on and there is some type of light shed onto this topic. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Niya Patterson, Grade 11
Shane Mammana • Dec 2, 2021 at 11:39 am
In Issue 2,2021 (Published November 17, 2021) Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article
titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire.” The article talks about the amount of false fire alarms we have
had at Millikan High School during the past few weeks. The article also monitors how students
and staff respond to these endless fire alarms. When Kezziah asked students about their opinion of
the fire alarm system, some of the students said it was so annoying and disruptive, their teacher just
kept them in the classroom until she canceled and the bell rang. very sensitive fire alarm.
Personally, I don’t care about the fire alarms when they go off continuously, but I still think it’s
important to evacuate the classroom and building when the alarm goes off because we might be in
danger one day, and didn’t know that a real fire was going on. Smoke detectors are sensitive or not,
prevention is better than cure. I have some questions regarding the article. Should the school invest
in buying a new smoke detector? What if ours are considered sensitive? Has this problem happened
in other schools or just with us? Can these alerts go off due to student smoking activity? Thank you
for explaining why fire alarms work so often.
Kira Nygaard • Dec 1, 2021 at 1:50 pm
In Issue 2/2021 (published November 27, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire”. The article mentions how although faulty, the idea that our school’s fire alarms are sensitive is a good thing. I have mixed feelings on this because especially by today’s standards (instead of when the school was built) we have the technology to have accurate and specific fire alarms it just comes down to actually putting them in so, we could have more accurate fire alarms and thus less faulty alarms, but on the other hand, the idea that we’ve had 6+ fire alarms that were all faulty since the beginning of school is not only concerning but also annoying. Not to mention, as far as evacuation goes, most students don’t care or are too lazy to evacuate anyway but given the amount of faulty alarms, students get even more resistant to evacuating because they “know it’s a drill” which raises concern if it were a real emergency, most people would just shrug it off and ignore it. Nevermind the students, but even some teachers at this point don’t regard the alarms because once again they, “know they’re fake” which is also concerning because in that class period, they are the ones in charge of their own as well as their students’ safety.
Samantha Torres • Nov 30, 2021 at 9:59 am
In issue 2/2021 (published November 17, 2021) Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire”. The article talks about how Millikan has been having a lot of false fire alarms lately and how it is affecting safety on campus. According to the article the fire alarms have gone off 7 times this school year and we have only been in school for less than 3 months. The false fire alarms have been happening so frequently that students and staff are beginning to not follow all the safety regulations for a fire drill. When the alarms go off their mind immediately thinks it’s another false alarm and won’t take it seriously. That is not a good mentality to have and it is very dangerous in the case of a real emergency because our minds are set on the idea of false fire alarms that if there is a real one people can potentially get hurt for not taking the drill seriously. I think this issue needs to be corrected because it is very annoying and time consuming to have to evacuate the building in the middle of class every now and then. These random drills mess up students’ focus and teachers’ lesson plans and causes students to lose learning time which is not beneficial.
Taylor Thompson • Nov 29, 2021 at 11:45 am
In issue 11/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled ¨The Bell Who Cried Fire¨ The article addresses the multiple false fire alarm bells we have had this year and the different opinions from staff and students. It also mentions how students should not ignore the alarm no matter how annoying it can be, for safety reasons. Many students including myself agree that the false fire alarms are very disruptive and use up a lot of our class time. Staff administration said that they are investigating the trigger of each of the false alarms, but how will this ensure it will not happen again? If a science class is doing an experiment that involves burning a substance and sets off the fire alarm there is no way to ensure that will never happen again. If students are the ones responsible for the alarms by using vapes or other smoking devices it would also be very difficult to to stop that from happening. Backpack checks take too much time, and you cannot thoroughly check every student’s bag before entering school. Possibly the experiments,that are able to, should move outside if needed. We are lucky to have such sensitive alarms in case of a real emergency.
Francisco • Nov 29, 2021 at 10:39 am
November 29, 2021
In Issue 11/19/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire” In this article it talks about how we have been having the fire bell going without there being any type of fire. This has become a huge issue for many because when your in class trying to get your work done you then suddenly hear the fire bell go off so you have to leave the class and go onto the field which leds to disrupting kids learning which is a big problem because they could miss a really important part in there subject. But since the alarm has been going off so much that kids have now started to take the fire alarm less seriously. But what happen if we have an actual fire, would kids even take it as a serious thing or not? If people decide to not take it seriously, people end up getting injured in the long run. One thing that needs to be done is look into why the fire alarm ends up going off every time. They need to look into the cause of all this mess and try too fix it. In the end people should really decide too take these fire drills as something serious because you will become the one being injured when there is a really fire and you can’t escape.
Francisco Gomez, Grade 11
Rose Schafer • Nov 28, 2021 at 6:29 pm
In Issue 2/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire” The article mainly discusses the recent, excessive fire alarms and drills here at Millikan. I’m glad someone has decided to speak out about this topic, because it’s something my friends and I talk about often. Why are there so many drills and is it really necessary? The article digs deeper into answering that question and I liked how they mentioned how disruptive and annoying the alarms can be. Although these constant alarms give plenty of practice to the students, it also results in them not taking the drills as seriously which can be very dangerous in the event of a real fire. Something that really made the article stand out to me was how it included staff members being interviewed. It’s comforting to hear the staff acknowledge the fire alarms as an issue and to say that they are figuring out a way to fix them. It is so important that this is fixed seeing as soon no one will be able to tell if the drill is real or not. And although I agree it is much better to have sensitive alarms than faulty ones, students and staff on campus need to know if there is actually a fire on campus for their safety.
ISABELLA SCHOEN • Nov 27, 2021 at 1:24 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
In issue 2/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire.” The article mentions the false fire alarms that have been occurring frequently at Millikan High School throughout the past weeks. The piece gives the perspectives of Millikan students and staff that have been dealing with the distributive false fire alarms. I have a few questions about the published article. Are we going to get new fire alarms and/or more security cameras that could see if there is anyone triggering the fire alarms? I heard a lot of the false fire alarms are coming from smoke detectors in the restrooms from the bungalow bathrooms or the 1000 building new restroom, but it wasn’t mentioned in the article going over the problem. The article describes why the alarms happen and how they are pretty random and unnecessary which I agree with completely. I now know how sensitive the alarms are at our school and how they go off so easily. I believe that we should still take these false fire alarms seriously, even though it is very distributive and annoying. It gives us a good opportunity to learn how to act in case of a real fire emergency.
Sydney Trump • Nov 20, 2021 at 1:26 pm
In Issue 2/2021, (Published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire.” The article talks about the amount of false fire alarms we have had at Millikan High School during the past few weeks. The article also oversees how the students and staff react to these endless fire alarms. When Kezziah interviewed students on their perspective of the fire alarms, some students said that It is annoying and disruptive, that their teachers just have them stay inside class until it’s called off, and that the fire alarms are sensitive. Personally, I do agree that the fire alarms are annoying when they are going off every time but I still do think it is important to evacuate the classroom and the building when the alarms go off, because one day we all could just be sitting in class and not aware that an actual fire is happening. Whether the smoke detectors are sensitive or not, It’s better to be safe than sorry. I do have a few questions regarding the article. Should the school invest in new smoke detectors? If ours are considered sensitive? Has this problem occurred in other schools or just ours? Could these alarms be going off because of students vaping too? Thank you for putting more insight on why the fire alarms have been going off so frequently.
Danielle Gregory • Nov 19, 2021 at 4:06 pm
November 19, 2021
Dear Corydon Editor,
In Issue 11/19/2021 (published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire” The article mentions how fire alarms have been going off so often lately, without there being a fire. It also mentions how these fire alarms have led students to take fire safety a lot less seriously. This is a big issue in our school because it disrupts our learning, and overall is just a recipe for disaster. What would happen if there really was a fire? Would people not take it seriously and end up getting injured? Fire safety is really no joke, and until the fire alarm situation can be fixed, every fire drill should be taken seriously to ensure students safety in the case of a real fire. What’s wrong with the fire alarm in the first place? Why does it keep going off? The school needs to look into this problem and fix it, because it has been going on for the entire school year now. To wrap it up, the fire alarm at Millikan needs to be fixed in order for everyone to stay safe and prepared for a real fire.
Sincerely,
Danielle Gregory, Grade 11
Julia Walton • Nov 19, 2021 at 2:31 pm
In Issue 2/2021 (Published November 17,2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an article titles “The bell who cried fire” The article covers the problem of the false fire alarms that go off every other week. I have only experienced these false alarms twice because the other times I wasn’t here but I can say it is very disruptive and takes away my class time. I learned that the 1000 building is the one with the sensitive fire alarms. Although I do have some questions. Do we know what sets these off? There have been rumors that it’s the smoke detectors in the bathrooms but how do we know that it’s true? I think one solution is we should get new smoke detectors that aren’t as sensitive. I know that most of the time the fire alarms do go off , but do we really wanna take that chance? I think it’s best if we always take safe precautions no matter what,because one day it could be a real fire. This article helped my better understanding of false fire alarms and how dangerous they really can be. I am so glad to have such a good staff at this school who take safety precautions no matter what.
Scout Knight-Pheng • Nov 19, 2021 at 12:35 pm
I agree. Although that all the fire alarms this year have been false or drills, we still need to take them seriously. The one day we don’t, it could be a real fire that will be a hazard to many students and teachers.
Jess Burchett • Nov 19, 2021 at 12:05 pm
I really enjoyed reading the insight from other students and teachers on the whole issue. Students have been quick to call that whenever a fire alarm begins to go off, it is not in a rush to get out and do the safest thing due to the amount of false alarms that has been happening, most likely from students doing non school related activities in the bathroom. Now when a fire alarm goes off, everyone just throws their heads back and groans because it has just gotten to the point where it is simply peeving. What happens if we ever experience a real fire and we are all just taking our sweet time thinking it is just another false alarm? That could be an extremely unsafe situation that would cause tons of chaos at school. I believe that we should have the bathrooms checked at the beginning and end of each class by CSO’s to make sure there are not students ditching class and doing things that they shouldn’t be doing at school. I know that I am not the only student who is beginning to feel a little bit more and more unsafe as each fire alarm goes off. It becomes annoying and a hassle and turns into something it should not be. Thank you for taking the time to speak up about how the alarms have become just something that is inconvenient rather than something to keep us safe. Also thank you for giving a little more insight on how the fire alarm system works.
Miguel Epifar De La Rosa • Nov 19, 2021 at 11:41 am
I am just glad to know on what was going on throughout those unexpected alarms.
Ethan Borgerding • Nov 18, 2021 at 12:21 pm
In issue 2/2021, (Published November 17, 2021), Kezziah Hernandez wrote an opinionated article titled “The Bell Who Cried Fire.” The piece written talks about the amount of false fire alarms that have occurred at Millikan High School during the past few weeks, and how the students and staff react to it. I have a few questions regarding the article. Will we get new fire alarms that aren’t as sensitive? Or are we going to stick with the very sensitive ones that we have now? I have also heard from a few teachers that the false alarms have come from smoke detectors in the bathrooms in the 11000 building, although it was not mentioned in the article, and I was unsure if it was true or not. Other than that, the article has helped me understand why the alarms occur at “random”. I used to think that they just went off for no reason, but now I know that the fire alarms are very sensitive. I also know that we should also take all of the alarms, false or not, seriously since we could really be in sincere danger without knowing it. Thank you for helping me understand why the alarms go off, and why we should take them seriously.
Kezziah Hernandez • Nov 19, 2021 at 10:26 am
Hi Ethan, Yea when asking Mr.Heinrich the reason he never mentioned anything about it coming from restrooms. I don’t know if that is true or not thank you.
Gavin • Nov 18, 2021 at 11:47 am
Yes it is very bad