At the start of third period, the fire alarm went off, disrupting classes throughout the building. Many teachers were surprised, as they were not informed of a scheduled drill.

“We were just about to start watching a movie in Spanish Class,” junior Jasmine Varghese said. “The alarm went off though, and our teacher just looked so confused.”

Many students were upset about having to wait in the cold weather, as they were not dressed appropriately.

“It’s just so cold right now ,and it’s not like we carry jackets around everywhere. We have to wait out here for a while too, and it’s annoying that it’s not a drill and that we could have been inside,” junior Andrijana Sajic said.

One of the key features at West of determining if the fire alarm is signaling a drill is if fire trucks are present before the students leave the building. However, while the students were waiting outside, trucks were beginning to pull in with their sirens on.

Some teachers were even annoyed that their lesson plans were derailed.

“We were just about to start a lesson,” Consumer Education teacher Brent Garner said. “The last time something like this happened a teacher burned popcorn in the microwave which set the fire alarm off.”

Staff members are conducting an investigation to determine the cause.