True Story

I went to work out in the 5th floor gym during my lunch. The band was practicing for their big concert tomorrow and as I was headed to the weight room the music teacher says, "Do you smell that?" and I said, "Yes, and there is smoke in the air." I observed for a while, he had the students look at all their amps and plugs and had someone notify general affairs to investigate. (Meanwhile there was a woman on the loud speaker saying something but it was so muffled that no one could hear the voice in the air as usual.) Nothing was on fire so I went into the weight room (a room located next to the stage in the big gym/basketball courts) If it got worse and there was more of a fire, lots of people knew I was in there and I could see the kids still playing basketball in the gym from the weight room. Not enough to evacuate the facilities, I felt safe.
After my workout I took a shower and headed back to my classroom on the floor below. Two of my co-workers stopped me and said, "Where were you? Did you hear what happened?" and I said, "What?" while thinking in the back of my mind they must have heard about the smoke in the gym. Then they said, "The fire." I said, "Well, it wasn't really a fire, I was there." After a lot of back and forth we realized that there were two fires, the one I was present at, and the one in the new building under construction next door. They proceeded to inform me that NONE of the fire alarms worked in the lower and upper school buildings and over the loud speaker (that muffled voice in the air) students were told to go back to their home rooms! BACK INTO THE BUILDINGS!!! They were all outside for lunch. So, my next door team member took my kids (since I was in the gym oblivious with at least 40 others). Most students didn't really know what was going on because of the poor communication AND it being lunch. Also, many teachers were on the soi buying lunch OFF CAMPUS, not able to hear the muffled voice in the air. None of the students that were in the gym with me knew what was going on, they continued to play basketball. Now, how safe do you feel in your work environment? A school with no working fire alarms? WHAT WAS I THINKING SIGNING FOR ANOTHER YEAR???? I HEART TCIS.