Staff Editorial: Fire alarm sounds off during Welcome Week

Was it enough?

If the fire alarm is a sign of anything, it’s a sign of the school being unprepared for a real emergency on the MHCC campus.

Yes, students inside classrooms or hallways can be notified and rushed to safety in the case of an emergency but that’s not the same story for students in the Main Mall or walking between classes.

As half of the student body and staff walked off campus, following the evacuation procedure, many students stood around.

Is it the lack of believability that there was an emergency on campus?

Yes, it’s easy to say a prankster wanted to bring in the new school year by pulling an alarm but that isn’t always the case.

There’s only so much staff can do to keep you safe but you have to uphold the other end of the bargain.

Instead of looking around, wide-eyed and curious, students need to act.

Real or not, unless you are a part of the scam to create even more havoc and confusion during an evacuation, you need to follow orders.

Books are not as important as your life. Waiting in that hectic “first-day-book-buying-lunch-crowd” crowd can be stressful and annoying. But when you have older women needing to tell you that you need to evacuate the building while a flashing alarm posted on the wall is emitting loud noises, then you need to sort out your priorities. The expensive books on the bookstore shelf will be there another day to buy.

Along with students being a part of the cause, we also need more notification. Staff members in neon orange vests can only do so much and during a big event like Welcome Week, we need more.

We need something extra to notify students other then watching dozens of students and staff leave classrooms. A drill that will ensure safety of people in massive crowds and over-all-panic needs to be developed for future events.

People, both students and staff, need to take responsibility not only for themselves but for the people around them, whether or not it’s you’re job at the college or as a decent human being.