The past few weeks, students and faculty have been experiencing emergency school drills frequently because of the school safety concerns.

“The drills have cut class time short so we don’t always get to finish the lesson or assignment that day,” freshman Madison Mannix said. “I think that the drills are important, but we don’t need to do them every week.”

The emergency drills have been happening about once every two weeks in order to make sure students and faculty know what to do in the case of an actual emergency. However, the emergency drill on April 12 between sixth and seventh period was not a planned drill. According to the school administration, a fire alarm was set off because a dust particle from air-condition installation triggered the alarm. Even though the fire alarm was set off accidentally, seventh-grader Kate B. said she saw students who looked lost and that she didn’t know where to go.

“No one really knew what was happening because it was during a class change, people were going everywhere,” she said. “I heard someone say go back to your last period class and others said to get into the nearest classroom, it was all really confusing.”

Students didn’t know what to do in this situation which is why administration wants to practice emergency drills to make sure that in the case of an emergency event everyone will know what to do in order to stay safe.

“The drills are important so that we are safe and I think that the accidental fire drill that happened kind of showed everyone that we do need to practice,” Kate said.

By Jessica Marzano

Editor’s note: Brevard Public Schools policy prohibits the inclusion of middle-schoolers’ last names on district-sponsored websites.