The end of 4th hour this past Wednesday (Oct. 14) was not accompanied by the normal school bell, but by the fire alarm. This fire drill was not scheduled.

“The alarm company was in our building today testing and did not disable the alarm,” said Principal Sonny Arnel. “I apologize for the interruption.”

The fire drill did not go off in some of the rooms of the school. Although class and lunch times were changed to compensate for the lost time, school was still let out at the normal 1:35 p.m. early release day time.

“Because we evacuated the building [Wednesday], we can count this as one of our drills; therefore, there will be no fire drill Tuesday, Nov. 17th during 1st hour,” said Dean of Students Todd Berck.

The unexpected fire drill brought confusion as to what students should do when they are not in their normal classroom.

“I have drop-in students that come into SPECTRA,” said Gifted Program Facilitator Sharon King. “If they’re in my classroom, they’re my responsibility. They follow me outside and I report them in my attendance.”

Some students and faculty believed that the fire drill was actually an intruder drill.

“There is no alarm for an intruder drill,” said Mr. Berck. “If an intruder was in the building, we would notify [teachers] by intercom only.”