Students and staff evacuated the school today due to ongoing repairs to the fire sensor in Room 176, which caused the alarm to go off.

The alarm sounded during the end of 4/5 period, and students and staff evacuated the building at 11:47 a.m. At 11:53 a.m. they were instructed to go back to class and wait for the sixth period bell. Students made their way to sixth period, and the regular schedule continued. 

Principal Isaiah Wyatt said that a technician had just finished work on the fire sensor in Room 176 when the alarm sounded. “As soon as the technician finished his repair on the sensor, he went and checked the panel. Everything was showing green, meaning that it was good. When he walked away from the panel and went out to the parking lot, that’s when the alarm went off,” he said.

As of 11:59 a.m., Wyatt said the sensor was still being worked on. “The technician’s repair work was complete, but somehow it tripped in the panel, so he had to go back,” he said. 

After the faulty sensor alarmed on Dec. 15, it was said to have been repaired. Including today’s event, faulty sensors have triggered at least 10 unique evacuation instances at the high school since 2021. 

Wyatt said during the 5/6 passing period today that if the alarm were to sound again, the system would be put once again in test mode, as it was Dec. 16, when an announcement to students said that the alarm system was being manually monitored and that future alarms should be ignored unless a P.A. announcement was made. 

“Based on what the technician is communicating, 176 is complete,” he said. “The sensor is repaired, and it should not go off. If it goes off, it will be for a different reason, other than Room 176. If it trips again, then I’ll put it into test mode and I’ll communicate that to the students.”

Senior Danya Swain said this issue should have been resolved over winter break. “It’s been more than three weeks since they’ve found out about this faulty sensor. They could have had people come in and fix it over break. It would’ve been the best time to deal with it because no one’s at school. It’s not a stress,” she said.

Junior Blake Durham said that the faulty sensor needs to be repaired because students can’t afford to evacuate for false alarms when prepping for finals, which will be administered next week. “This problem should’ve been dealt with already. And now that we’re back from break, we all have finals next week. So I feel like now we’re in this crunch time, and we’re trying to study. And like, with that false alarm going off, it’s interrupting time that could have been spent preparing and understanding,” she said.

Intervention specialist Mary Lapp, who works with moderate intensive class groups, said that because MIC students have to dismiss earlier for fire drills, unplanned alarms are hard. “Our students need a little longer time to process things. The first time you ask them, they don’t always immediately respond. Some students also have mobility issues that take them longer to walk out, and some of them are also very sensitive to the sound of the fire alarm. We like to have noise cancelling headphones and prepare them so they’re not emotionally affected by it. So when we have an unplanned, faulty fire alarm, it really makes it a lot more difficult for us,” she said.

Senior Ricki Hawari said the school should take students into account when fixing problems throughout the building. “I don’t understand how they don’t see that as a hindrance to our learning. It’s very annoying. Like, I know this school has a lot on their plate to think about, but I’m disappointed in my administration,” she said.

Said senior Leela Natarajan, “It was much more streamlined than it had been in the past. It was a lot quicker. It seems like we’re getting better at evacuating for these faulty sensors.”

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