The first two alarms were set off by some kind of smoke — potentially from foods like popcorn that have activated the sensors in the past — while the cause of the third alarm remains unknown. According to Assistant Principal of Safety Dr. Mycal Hixon, the new fire panel — which was installed over the summer to provide a safety upgrade to the previous out-of-date system — is being investigated as the potential cause.

“We’re trying to work with the fire department to see if this is either a faulty alarm, a box that’s going off or if there was an actual pull,” he said. “Unlike the other days, we weren’t able to identify smoke (on Thursday), so we’re really trying to figure it out.”

These interruptions, even with the adjusted bell schedule accommodations on Thursday, impacted both student agenda and instruction time. According to history teacher Laurel Howard, she’s had to adapt to the incident in order to ensure her periods learn the same amount of content at the same time.

“(The fire alarms are) impacting my class periods in different ways,” she said. “If I’m trying to keep my classes on track with each other and one has a 20-minute evacuation, then I have to make adjustments so (the delayed class) doesn’t fall too far behind.”

Although a definitive reason for the three alarms this week is still under investigation, administration is considering whether they may be due to a potential smoking problem on campus. Hixon explained that possible administration responses may include increased student resources, increased campus security and utilizing camera footage.

“We want to make sure that we can accurately identify what the problem is so we can accurately work together collaboratively to come up with solutions,” he said. “If it’s going off because somebody’s intentionally smoking in the bathroom, that’s one thing. If there’s somebody actually doing something, we want to find what support we can provide them to help them understand that (it) is not okay.”

For English teacher Diane Ichikawa, the ambiguity of the faulty fire alarms’ has added to the confusion that undermines the trustworthiness of the campus’s safety systems.

“Because we get so many (fire alarms) that end up being either false or people perceive them to be false, they don’t take an actual emergency (seriously),” she said. “It’s kind of a ‘boy-cried-wolf’ situation.”

In response to the lack of information available, Hixon highlighted the administration’s efforts to rectify these issues.

“We will work with the company that installed the fire alarms to ensure we are trained on everything it does and why,” he wrote in an email. “We will also be more alert to our surroundings, making sure that if we see something, we say something so that we can safely get things taken care of. We will also be getting an updated security camera system.”

However, despite the disturbances these fire alarms have caused, Science Instructional Lead Dr. Heather Mellows emphasized the importance of taking evacuation seriously.

“(Evacuating) is still important because we don’t know which alarms are real,” Mellows said. “And as a science teacher, I know that sometimes the fire alarm is because of what happens in my room, and I need it to be real when that happens.”

Currently, the evacuation drill scheduled for Thursday, August 29 will continue as planned.

“I am sure students have done a great job, but just in case, there are still a few things that we need to work on and (the drill) gives us that opportunity to do it,” Hixon said.

—Written by Kaylee Cheng, Anne Dong, Sylvie Nguyen and Ya-An Xue. Additional reporting by Gwen Domine.

Powell believes one of many benefits of working with Mellows in the same school is that they can encourage each other to take on new experiences. “Dr. Mellows is responsible for getting me to be on stage to do anything,” she said. “I think there’s no way in hell I would have ever been on stage in the staff musical (without her encouragement). She (tells me), ‘I’ll do it. I’ve done it. You do it. Let’s do it.’”

Working in the same department has also allowed for the two teachers to share common ground. “We can commiserate with work situations,” Mellows said. “We (also) have a lot of understanding of what challenges there are and what joys there are in work.” The teachers have also grown closer outside of school. Powell, for example, has helped Mellows with pet-sitting in the summer. “(Mellows) had a habit of traveling the world in the summer,” Powell said. “So in the summertime, our family was a cat camp for her orange cat. When Dr. Mellows (had finished) teaching in Turkey for two years, I flew to Turkey to pick up her cat because she was going to spend the summer visiting her family in England and going on a safari.”

The two teachers also strengthened their friendship through shared passions such as softball. “I knew that (Powell) played softball, so I invited her to play on the softball team I was playing on,” Mellows said. “So I got to know her outside of work as well.” Powell and Mellows play together on a team called JERKS, and this love for softball has created unforgettable memories between the two teachers. They have also chaperoned Model United Nations conference trips together. “We have some good stories from various adventures across the country with the students,” Mellows said. Powell and Mellows have come to cherish different aspects of their friendship. Powell values Mellows’ unconditional acceptance and their varied strengths. “The things we bring to a conversation aren’t the same,” she said. “(Mellow is) always asking me biology questions, and I’m always asking her physics and chemistry questions. We have some rich conversations because we have different strengths.” On the other hand, Mellows values their support for each other. “She gets my sense of humor, which I appreciate,” she said. “She has my back and knows my history because (our friendship has) been so long.”

In the future, Powell sees herself continuing to work together with Mellows, both in and outside of school. “We have a nonprofit company called Bad-Ass Grannies, BAG for short,” she said. “(We make) greeting cards that are for anniversaries and birthdays, counted by the periodic table. Dr. Mellows writes fortunes, and I write poems about the birthday or anniversary, mostly in iambic pentameter. When we no longer work here, we could open (up) that store and have our little kiosk of greeting cards.” Mellows also agrees that their friendship will continue into retirement. “There’ll be more adventures to come,” she said. “(I’m) counting on our baking (passion) and greeting-card business for an income and the connection after we retire.”