You’re sitting in class trying to focus on some assignments. All of a sudden, a loud, harsh metallic ringing that seems to penetrate your very skull interrupts your learning. Every person in the room jumps six inches into the air… and then clasps their hands over their ears; and waits for the fire alarm to stop.

Sound familiar? Every Liberty student has been through a false fire alarm experience more than once this year. We all know that being in a school that’s under construction has its downsides, and students don’t hesitate to adamantly voice their opinions about the unfinished floors, the giant puddles and the mud gardens in the courtyard. Unfortunately, despite students complaints, most of that is just stuff we will have to deal with. However, I think there is one complaint that’s legitimate: the random fire alarms.

We aren’t having fire alarms go off every day, but it’s happened a good 3 or 4 times this year. When it isn’t a scheduled practice it’s disruptive to our learning.  1200 students are supposed to get up, “evacuate” to the field, stand around for a minute or two, and then trudge back to class. But these fire alarms are going off so much that most teachers will have the students wait several minutes to see if it’s a real problem.  What kind of protocol is it for every student to sit in the their seats and just wait for the alarm to shut off?

Now I’m not saying Liberty is about to spontaneously burst into flames, but all these false alarms are teaching us bad habits. Hopefully, we never have a real fire, but if we do all the staff and students sitting and waiting for the noise to stop isn’t going to help anyone if the hallways are in flames. This is could prove to be serious problem if there ever is an actual need to evacuate. I mean, I’m no construction worker, but let’s try and keep the false fire alarms to a minimum. And Patriots, lets remember that sometimes that at annoying bell goes of for a reason.