The unnecessarily piercing whistle rings throughout the halls at 100 decibels, temporarily deafening every person on campus and ensuring a ringing headache for the rest of the day. Students have no idea if this fire bell is a drill or not. Frantically trying not to panic, they instinctively follow protocol to the letter by leaving everything in the classroom. They walk single file briskly to the nearest exit and wait quietly and with bated breath outside until an administrator comes outside and informs them if it was a drill, and they are allowed to return to class, or if the school is burning down and they all have to go home. This is a typical fire drill on campus.

Haha, just kidding.

Fire drills, while well-intentioned, are both out of date and ineffective in a high school setting. The state of Texas suggests that schools have at least one fire drill each month. That is ten fire drills a year.

Speaking from a student standpoint, that is ridiculous. It does not take ten fire drills a year for students to know where is the nearest exit from their classroom. Trust me, students think about exiting class enough to know where the doors are, and even if they didn’t, it is pretty self-explanatory, especially during a fire drill. Walk away from the middle of the school until you reach the nearest exit.

If that isn’t enough, look for the glowing red signs that say Exit, listen to the bored teachers located strategically in the halls telling students where to go, or follow the herds of dozens of students filing out the exits. It shouldn’t take ten tries to figure that out and these drills just disrupt class time.

Not only do too many fire drills waste class time, but they desensitize students to the possible danger of a fire. Even when we aren’t sure if it is a drill or not, when the bells go off, students roll their eyes, calmly gather up their stuff, and walk outside in clumps, disregarding the supposed danger of the situation.

I am not suggesting that fire drills be eliminated completely. I recognize the importance of fire safety, as well as the fact that the state is covering its tracks and minimizing future lawsuits if harm should come to a student during a fire. However, I do not believe that the current fire drill system is effective.

Instead of surprising students with fire drills (the teachers are informed of when drills will be, but many times forget to tell the students), when a drill is occurring, there should be an announcement that it is a drill. This way, if a real fire emergency happens, students will know that it is not a drill, and that it is of the utmost importance to exit the building and follow protocol.

Also, there should not be ten drills a year. Four is plenty to ensure that procedure will be properly followed, and any more than that will further desensitize students to the importance of the drills.

These changes will not bring about flawlessly executed fire drills, with students filing outside silently and standing at attention until they are allowed to return to class. But they will help to make fire drills less of an excuse to get out of class five minutes early, and more of an actual safety procedure.