WOODBURY — Safety procedures and precautions have been drilled into students for most of their academic careers: What do we do if the absolute worst happens?
Before classes started at 7:25 a.m. on Feb. 27, the fire alarm was accidentally pulled before most were seated in class, testing Nonnewaug staff and students to follow correct procedure amid the chaos.
“For us [administration], obviously we didn’t plan to have one,” Nonnewaug principal Mykal Kuslis said. “Much to my surprise, I thought at the pull station you kind of had to pull it all the way down, like in the movies. It actually doesn’t require that, so just a little bit of movement could cause the alarm to activate. What happened was the student was wearing a backpack, and as he was shifting and letting kids in, a piece of the backpack got caught and activated the fire alarm.”
Normally, students would go to one of the five rally points located outside the school according to whichever class they are in. Since many students were still arriving at school or walking around the building, the usual order of assembling at rally points was not very successful despite an announcement for students to assemble at their advisory’s rally point.
“It was very unorganized,” sophomore Deme Jones said. “The teachers were just telling us to put our names down on any teacher’s piece of paper, and no one really knew what was going on.”
Adding on even further to the confusion, students who had access to a car were sitting in them during the drill, yet only some students were checking in with advisory first.
“I didn’t really want to stand out in the cold,” sophomore Anna Crocker said, “because I knew we would be there for a while. When I got over to my designated advisory, and I made sure to check in, I saw one of my senior friends. She offered for me to sit in her warm car, and I just went.”
Although this was not a planned fire drill, Kuslis admits there was a certain importance to it, and a lot to learn from it regarding future emergency situations.
“At a certain point, it was about keeping kids in places that were safe and away from traffic,” Kuslis said. “If there was anything else that was happening, or there was a real fire, it was about figuring out if we had the ability to get them to a place that was safe. I think it was a great learning opportunity for Nonnewaug, and I love — to some degree — a little chaos, but again, it allows us to have a good conversation about what we would need to do in the future.”
Besides having organizational and communication issues, the fire evacuation also hindered the FFA staff breakfast that was scheduled to conclude at 7:30 a.m.
“Due to the timing, there were some people on their way to the breakfast and they could not get any,” agriscience teacher Eric Birkenberger said. “It shortened it up, and people didn’t get the same amount of time to enjoy it as they normally would. Mr. [John] Dominello said he was on his way over to get breakfast and the alarm went off, so he couldn’t.”
No matter the circumstances, Kuslis as well as other staff agree they handled the matter the best they could. Local authorities cleared students and staff to re-enter the building within a half-hour of the alarm sounding.
“I think sometimes in a situation like that, any decision is better than no decision,” Kuslis said. “We made the decision to have people go to their advisories; we adjusted as was necessary on the fly.”
