Whenever the administration invokes a new policy or acts in a manner that provokes criticism among students and teachers, most of the time I can rationalize the administration’s actions and understand the purpose behind them. When the frenzy of cell phone confiscations occurred I understood the necessity for the administration to enforce the no-electronic-devices rule in the student handbook. When the school’s evacuation routes were modified last semester, I understood the importance of keeping students a safe distance from school during emergencies. This time, however, I just can’t put my hand around the administration’s reasoning.

Why force a fire drill during the last few minutes of the last period of the semester, when students are completing final exams?

Certainly, it is possible the administration had good intentions when they allowed this fire drill to take place. The school may have wanted to prepare us for emergency exits even in the worst of circumstances. It’s also possible the administration simply failed to take into consideration the students taking finals when they decided to meet the Georgia requirement of holding monthly fire drills.

But regardless of whether the timing was intentional or just the result of oversight, the administration’s unfortunate decision sends an unintended but clear message to students and teachers that administrators either don’t understand or don’t care about the  academic productivity necessary on the last day of school.

Consider the students’ perspective. Many of us are in the midst of finishing up a final exam (which should not come as a surprise to anyone since the administration assigned this last period of the semester to be used for final exams). Others are gathering together completed assignments to be turned in right after the bell rings and before teachers leave. To our surprise, a fire drill takes place, and to make matters worse, no one is allowed back into the building afterwards. We are forced to stop testing mid-question. We have assignments to turn in and no opportunity to do so. The natural next question is … why?

The most drastic consequence of the fire drill was not that students lost a few minutes at the end of the exam or were unable to turn in an assignment, because I’m sure teachers did not penalize anyone as a result. The worst consequence is that teachers felt disrespected.

Physics teacher Jeff Cramer was holding a final exam for his students when his class was interrupted at 3 p.m. by an announcement. It discussed the possibility of maybe having a fire drill and what students and teachers should do if that were to happen.

“It was worded in such a way that it was almost as if it was a very condescending, coded message to say to us, ‘Watch out. We’re going to have a fire drill,’” Cramer said.

Teachers had been given no prior notice, and almost immediately after the announcement, the fire drill began. Although Cramer didn’t leave himself, he thought it important to have his students evacuate during the drill since that was what he had been told to do. Cramer even had to pull tests away from students, who were in the midst of completing an answer.

The opinion we walk away with—the school doesn’t care. I’ll be the first to admit this is not the case, and I know the school’s primary concern is for the students. But the underlying message we received is that education is not our school’s top priority.

To be clear, I’m not blaming the entire administration for this incident. It likely occurred as a result of a mistake, an impulsive decision. But never again should a fire drill take place during a period reserved for final exams when it is so easy to prevent this from happening.