On Monday, October 27, Holyoke High School North students, staff, and visitors exited the building four times when fire alarms went off.
The first two times were the result of a faulty sensor near the gymnasium. The second two times were because a student intentionally pulled the alarm and ran out of the building. Holyoke Police captured the student’s actions on school video cameras, and the student was arrested off school grounds a few moments later.
In addition to the personal consequences a person faces for pulling a fire alarm when there is not an emergency, students and their families are reminded that such actions pose potential safety risks to emergency responders and others in the school building and surrounding community.
“These incidents also tie up emergency responders so they are not available to respond to other incidents that could also require their attention,” HHS North Principal Lori McKenna said. “Please be assured that as a school community, we take this afternoon’s false alarms seriously, and we will not tolerate them in our school buildings. I also want to commend our students and school staff for following our safety procedures and maintaining a calm, orderly presence while police and fire officials investigated and secured our building.”