Aragon students wait in the football field and wait for the fire department to arrive.
The winter rally was abruptly cut short when a fire alarm forced students, teachers and administrators to exit the gym on Feb. 13.
Assistant Principal Joe Mahood isn’t sure what exactly set off the alarm, but he’s ruled out cigarettes and the barbecue club as possible causes. “Somebody went into a bathroom, and clouds [were] formed. I don’t know what it was — if it was water vapor, or if it was sanitation spray — but it wasn’t tobacco. It was in a contained room, and it set off an alarm. [But] it wasn’t the barbecue club, and it wasn’t cigarettes,” says Mahood.
However, Dean Michael Valmonte has his suspicions. “We think we had someone smoking a vapor pen, but the investigation is still ongoing,” he says. “We should have much more information by Tuesday.”
“We know who it is, and we’re looking for them,” adds Mahood.
While most of the activities planned had already been executed at the time the fire alarm rang, Leadership students were disappointed that the rally interfered with the showing of the annual winter rally video, made by seniors Olivia Cosca, Jessica Moe and David Traver.
“The school was really looking forward to the reveal of the video. We saved the best for last, and it was interrupted right when it was about to start, ” says rally commissioner Olivia Cosca on the fire alarm interrupting the rally.
“At first people were really disappointed. I had students in tears because they had put so much hard work into assembling the various groups on our campus,” adds Leadership adviser Melissa Perino.
However, according to Cosca, three-fourths of the students returned to see the video when they were given the opportunity during lunch.
“The silver lining was that almost all of the student body came back to see the video,” says Perino.
While Cosca agrees it was heartening to see students voluntarily return, she thinks that it ultimately wasn’t the same as having the video play at the rally. “It was nice seeing that people actually wanted to come back and see the video,” she says. “But it didn’t have the same feeling when we played it at lunch because we took all the decorations down.”
For the people who missed the lunch showing, the video will be shared through social media. “We’ll have someone have post it on YouTube and post the link to the Aragon Spirit and Rally page on Facebook for the people who missed it,” says Cosca.
