Two surprise fire alarms were triggered within the first four weeks of the school year at Olympia High School. The first was an accident; the second was set off by a science teacher.

Both alarms were accidents that opened the school’s eyes to school safety, fire alarm quality, and emergency management. The first alarm on September 21st “was just a freak accident in PE class where a student went to catch a ball close to the wall in the mat room and hit the fire alarm pull as they caught the ball” said Ryan Gerrits.

The second alarm was triggered on September 26th at 9:35 am by a science classroom burning sugar. Thanks to a sensitive alarm system, the school was evacuated to the football field for the second time in a week. 

Sensitive and exposed alarm triggers have raised concerns among OHS staff. New covers are being placed on the exposed alarms in PE-related rooms. However, Jesse Stevick said that he would like a way to know “why a fire alarm goes off and [know] it’s not a danger, that there would be a way maybe to call out that it’s not a danger. To say which fire alarm went off and if it was known that there was not a fire.”

Knowing such information could save the school time when a surprise alarm gets triggered and would also allow for the information of ‘why did that alarm go off?’ to become public knowledge. Knowing where and why an alarm went off could also be useful in avoiding certain parts of the building that may be dangerous to cross through.

Drills such as these always bring attention to how strong, as well as vulnerable, Olympia High School is to emergencies. In terms of fire evacuations, “I thought all the students in the school did a great job of getting to the field and finding their homeroom teachers,” said Gerrits. When asked if his class did well in the evacuations, Stevick said “Yeah, I mean from my perspective I think so… for my classes we were able to get out to the field.”

Olympia High School’s evacuation plans and general response were phenomenal. However, there is always room for improvement. Assistant Principal, Dan Casler was asked about the safety procedures at OHS. He said that there were no student stragglers, but “we had a few staff members that were kind of lagging… sometimes I think when a staff member knows it’s a drill, they might go use the restroom real quick, things like that.” which is something that they are working on ironing out.

Fire alarms and drills have become second nature to students due to such frequent practices. However other procedures have luckily been less practiced. Casler has worries about school security. Frequent news about tragedies such as school shootings has brought light to new security methods. “One of our priorities right now as we plan; is to try and keep our doors secure. You saw some cones in the commons. We’re making sure our doors are locked, ” said Casler.

More practice will be put in place in the next couple of months to prevent, and/or minimize the effects of these tragedies. The administration is currently working with the Olympia Police Department to “map out how they would handle it if there was an emergency so we would know what they’re gonna do, ” said Casler. Developments are constantly being made to make sure that OHS is a safe learning environment.

These drills were unusual for happening within a week of each other. They proved that OHS’ evacuation plans work, and can be repeated without major issues. If students at OHS are interested in helping the administration with security plans, Assistant Principal Dan Casler is looking for a student perspective on school safety.