The Skokie Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Niles West High School on March 1, 2022. Students and staff were evacuated from the building mid-first period.

In the Skokie Fire Department’s incident report, a building engineer “stated someone was smoking in a bathroom.”

Earlier in the year, fire alarms were triggered on Aug. 16, Aug. 20, and Sept. 16.

According to Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther, “In regards to precautions, our security staff does routine bathroom checks. We also have our admin team doing bathroom checks as well.”

Freshman Kaylee Cao said, “Pointless, unnecessary and useless is how I would describe the trigger of the fire alarm. I do not understand why students take the time out of firefighters’ days for a pointless alarm that could have been easily prevented.”

Freshman Ajla Parganlija agrees, and said, “The vaping in the bathroom was immature and wasted everyone’s time.”

This is the fourth recorded fire alarm this academic year that has been attributed to vaping.