Hello all, as most people know it is the end of the school year and good old senior prank time. One of the oldest 'tricks' in the book at my school is to pull the fire alarm over and over again (yes, it's pretty lame).
Well, it happened a few days ago and in an effort to prevent the thing from being pulled again, after returning inside from the second alarm the administration told everyone in the building to ignore the alarm if it sounded again, and that we would be notified if there was a real emergency...
I have a huge problem with the school saying this... the fire alarm is required by law in large public places, isn't it? How can the school administration just tell 1600+ people to ignore an alarm? If there really WAS a fire, wouldn't the principals be risking lives by spending valuable minutes trying to find out if there was a real fire or not?
By, the way I live in Connecticut if it makes a difference.
(If possible, please cite the source of the answer, thx)
2007-06-11 09:38:08 · 7 answers · asked by Brandon 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
I don't see an issue with that -- if the alarm goes off it can be investigated before evacuating.
I work in a hospital, and when a fire alarm sounds we do not evacuate everyone -- we investigate, then take action.
Maybe -- just maybe -- if the morons at your school would grow up, this would not be an issue.
2007-06-11 09:41:33 · answer #1 · answered by Susie D 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They can override any sort of automatically triggered alarms by saying the alarming state is faulty and to ignore it. Whether that fault is human caused or caused by an equipment failure, if they determine that there is no threat to life and health, they can state to ignore it.
This is the problem when people pull pranks. You should get up on the public address system and curse out the idiots that were pulling the pranks for endangering all of your lives for stupidity.
With pulling people out of the classes each and every time it goes off, each time that is done there is a chance that someone will get hurt or injured during the evacuation. For nucience problems like that, you have to make a decision. And he made a good one. Either risk the health of the students every time a false alarm is triggered, or ignore it until it is checked and verified. Accidents can happen much quicker than a fire will break out. For the greater good of the students, telling everyone to ignore it is the best thing to do.
2007-06-11 16:53:09 · answer #2 · answered by MrKnowItAll 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Technically I believe it would illegal to ignore it, because I was the fire warden on my floor at my last job and it was definitely illegal not to call the fire department even if you smelled burning popcorn or if you heard a fire alarm - because lots of people think someone already did it and then no one ends up doing it and it take valuable minutes before the fire department learns about it in order to respond. I don't think it is illegal for them to tell you to not leave the classroom until further information, because depending on the size of the building they would want to vacate those areas closest to the fire first to prevent panic and people getting trampled. But since it is a school I know that there are evacuation plans in place, so as long as someone is looking into the situation immediately and still calling the fire department I don't think it is illegal for them to say to hold tight for more information.
2007-06-11 16:52:45 · answer #3 · answered by punkinbutt 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am a school teacher and for all the bogus fire alarms we had, the one time there was a fire we knew immediately. It is very easy to tell the difference between pranks and real fires.
Blame the students for this first.
2007-06-11 16:41:34 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was a freshmen in highschool when the whole colimbine thing happend and they made this rule where if the fire alarms went off you were to shut the door, turn off the light and hide under the desk. There would be an announcment if there was a fire.
This was in PA
2007-06-11 16:52:55 · answer #5 · answered by mable3691214 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Seniors in the state that is home to Yale can't find anything more clever in their last week than pulling fire alarms.
Sad. Really sad.
2007-06-11 16:49:06 · answer #6 · answered by open4one 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fire alarm /false alarming is a CRIME depending on the state.
If school suspects/saw false pull...no smoke evident...why trash class for 1600?
But it is a judgement call...for the gutsy!
2007-06-11 16:49:58 · answer #7 · answered by acct10132002 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋