On Wednesday, March 18, the New Haven High School/ Middle School fire alarms went off, alerting everyone in the building. What people thought was a prank or just an accidental hit ended up to be a smoke in the vents. Kate Weiser, a sophomore at New Haven High, joked, “My first thought was should I take my cake or nah?” Kate later stated, “I felt safe and knew that whoever was in charge would make a good decision.”
It was thirty minutes before the fire department could find the source of what was setting off the alarms. Superintendent Kyle Kruse stated, “There was a motor inside of an air handler that overheated and began to smoke in the middle school hallways.”
Thankfully, the schools’ practice fire drills often enough that the students and teachers knew how to get where they needed to be to stay safe. High School principal Josh Hoener voiced, “I was confident that the teachers and students knew what they were doing and would get to where they needed to be.” FACS teacher Mrs. Miller stated, “ I was on plan time, so I was not in charge of a group of kids. So I made sure students got to the correct teacher.”
Mr. Kruse commented, ”My first concern was making sure every student was safe and accounted for. Keeping our students safe is the number one priority.”
Once outside, the teachers were instructed to get all students onto buses and transfer the students and faculty to Memorial Baptist Church in New Haven. The students entered the church and were told to stay with their second hour teachers. The teachers were told to take role again to make sure that they still had all of their students. An announcement was made by Mrs. Meyer, the principal of the elementary school, that the source was found, and she explained the cause.
Mr. Kruse made three phone calls to emergency contacts and parents/guardians through the School Reach phone system. The phone system is a computer program that allows Mr. Kruse to make parents/guardians aware of anything from snow days to emergencies . Each phone call consisted of Mr. Kruse informing the parents/guardians about what was going on, what the source of the smoke was, and finally, that all of the students would be returning to the high school.
In the end, the the smoke that was filling the vents from mechanical issues was an experience that all involved will remember. Thanks to everybody’s cooperation, the situation was good practice in case there ever is an actual fire. The problem has been fixed, and the students have been going on with their regular routines.
-by Zoie Mathis
Thankfully, the schools’ practice fire drills often enough that the students and teachers knew how to get where they needed to be to stay safe. High School principal Josh Hoener voiced, “I was confident that the teachers and students knew what they were doing and would get to where they needed to be.” FACS teacher Mrs. Miller stated, “ I was on plan time, so I was not in charge of a group of kids. So I made sure students got to the correct teacher.”
Mr. Kruse commented, ”My first concern was making sure every student was safe and accounted for. Keeping our students safe is the number one priority.”
Once outside, the teachers were instructed to get all students onto buses and transfer the students and faculty to Memorial Baptist Church in New Haven. The students entered the church and were told to stay with their second hour teachers. The teachers were told to take role again to make sure that they still had all of their students. An announcement was made by Mrs. Meyer, the principal of the elementary school, that the source was found, and she explained the cause.
Mr. Kruse made three phone calls to emergency contacts and parents/guardians through the School Reach phone system. The phone system is a computer program that allows Mr. Kruse to make parents/guardians aware of anything from snow days to emergencies . Each phone call consisted of Mr. Kruse informing the parents/guardians about what was going on, what the source of the smoke was, and finally, that all of the students would be returning to the high school.
In the end, the the smoke that was filling the vents from mechanical issues was an experience that all involved will remember. Thanks to everybody’s cooperation, the situation was good practice in case there ever is an actual fire. The problem has been fixed, and the students have been going on with their regular routines.
-by Zoie Mathis
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