On Sept. 24, during first hour, the whole school evacuated due to a trash can being set on fire in the bathroom by David Beggs’ classroom.

At first, Principal Robbie Shepherd had assumed someone pulled the fire alarm. After checking and seeing otherwise, he contacted the secretary and had the whole school evacuate. 

“When the alarm went off, I was by Ms. Holder’s classroom,” Shepherd said. “I first thought someone had pulled the fire alarm, so I checked the control panel. It said ‘thermal detection’ which means there is an actual fire.”

One student (who wished not be named) who was in Ryan Anderson’s class at the time mentioned what it looked like as they were exiting the building.

“At first I thought it was a drill,” he said. “It smelled horrible and I could see a little bit of smoke.”

There was no damage to the building and only the trash can was damaged. Everyone made it out safely but the smoke that spread through the halls via the air ducts caused one staff member to be sent to the hospital.

“I was proud of how teachers and students handled it; proud they could evacuate the building in less than a minute,” Shepherd said.

Students and staff waited outside for an hour. Some classes played games while others talked with friends. The fire was put out quickly and once all the smoke was able to clear out everyone was allowed to come back in and school resumed as normal.