On Tuesday, May 6, middle school students were released from school at 12:00 p.m. due to an issue with the sprinklers. An email sent to parents explained that “a sprinkler head malfunctioned in a kiln room, which activated additional sprinkler heads.” The students were ultimately sent home due to the water and the volume and difficulty of navigating the hallways with all of the fans and dryers.

The situation caused large deviations in the students’ daily routines. Sami Phillips ‘30 said, “It was really funny because we only got about 30 minutes of learning.” Spanish teacher Lynn Baete explained, “the kids were basically outside for that first hour … and then for the next class period they totally missed it.”

Everyone was in class when suddenly the fire alarms began to sound. English teacher Kayla Nussbaum said, “I kind of knew it wasn’t a drill because usually the faculty knows when a fire drill is happening. But everyone was super calm.” Most students thought that it was a drill. Jackson Han ‘30 said, “I was in Latin class and then the fire alarm turned on and I thought it was a drill so I just did what I did for a drill.” Nussbaum believed that the students were well prepared for the situation: “It was really great to see how well our drills have helped us know what to do when the fire alarm goes off.”

The students waited outside as they would for a normal fire drill. However, everyone was outside for so long that they knew something was off. Avery Fulton ‘30 said, “It was confusing because we weren’t really told what was happening, so when the alarm went off we were in the parking lot for an hour then got told to go to the field.” The students were asked to treat the time on the field as their recess; Han said, “It just felt like a really long recess when we were waiting to see if we could go back in.” Once the Hopkins Fire Department arrived, everyone realized that it was not in fact a drill. Baete described, “We went outside and we were there for so long. And then the trucks came and I was like, oh my gosh kids, it’s not a drill.”

Middle school teachers were informed of the exact situation by the fire department. Baete said, “firemen were able to pull aside a couple of teachers and… we learned what had happened and then we probably wouldn’t be able to go back in the building until they mopped up all the water.” News reached the Upper School in various ways. Many students and teachers found out because of the email sent to parents or because of middle school students. Margaret Coley explained that she found out through the person who delivers inter-campus mail. “He sent me an email yesterday saying, sorry, I can’t make it there today. We had a fire at the middle school and we had to take the kids home early.”

Things have mostly returned to normal. However, the upcoming spring concerts were affected. Band teacher Miriam Dennis explained that “band students lost a whole day of rehearsing, so we are down to the wire and hoping that we still have a great week despite missing an entire day of rehearsals.” She and choir teacher Dan LeJeune agreed that the students would “rise to the occasion”. LeJeune said, “It’s all good- it’s just a crazy event.”