PULLING THE FIRE ALARM
In my 20 years as a high school principal, I bet I pulled
that damn fire alarm 100 times or more.
And I never pulled that alarm without some sense of rush. I would always approach the handle with in trepidation
and excitement. It was always a little
bit of a cheap thrill. Pulling this little handle filled me with power.
As I pulled down and then released my hand, I would then
step back and exhale. There would be a
deafening silence and there would be an obnoxious sound and offensive flashing
lights. The sound would be
deafening. The volume would take me by
surprise every time. It was as if I was
hearing this sound for the first time. The lights would unnerve me as I found
myself blinking in sync with the strobe flashes.
Then there would be loud groans coming out of every single
classroom in the building. A teacher or two would bark out, “Yes we have to go
outside. Lets go. Mike, get the lights
and close the windows. Come on gang, get
up, let’s go. NOW!”
The whole student body marched out before my eyes. Everyone would
shuffle through quickly and loudly as teachers barked, “NO TALKING! QUIET!”
I would stand in waiting, timing how quickly we all exited safely. If we made it out in less than three minutes,
I was pleased.
Then the lobby would be like a ghost town. No one was in sight. The custodian would show
up and reset the alarm. Then I would saunter to the football field where people
ran to their assigned spots. Role was
taken. Everyone had to be present and
accounted for, and once we could confirm this count, we could go back inside.
The whole process of counting these 1200 students took about 15 minutes.
I used to have 3 or 4 drills a year. But then my boss said I had to have one a
month. That was too many, too much time
out of class. But my boss was in charge
so I had to comply. So I decided to hold these numerous drills now, on the
first Tuesday of the month, during homeroom.
Everyone knew to anticipate the drill and they planned accordingly. Some
of the faculty thought we should return to
the surprise element of the drills so that kids didn’t become complacent. So I
told the faculty that we were following the Pentagon model of drill and practice. I told them this is our military does it. That explanation gave our practice just a
little bit of status. This little bit of ridiculous bullshit was enough for
them to go back to the students and sell the idea of why we practiced the same
day and same time each month.
