All students have experienced those pesky fire drills. We’ve all heard them, interrupting our conversations, causing a momentary lapse into awkward and questioning silence. It’s not always annoyance, however, that makes us stop and listen. Usually, you wonder if the fire drill is signalling something real.

As of last Wednesday, my thoughts on fire drills have completely changed. Sitting in my 9 a.m. class, I was rudely awakened by what I thought was just another drill. It wasn’t. There was a small fire in the food court of Place Riel.

This made me think, What if instead of a small fire, there had been a larger one that was less manageable? All of the students down my hall stayed in their classroom for about 10 minutes waiting for the “drill” to pass and didn’t actually leave until we were ushered out.

Our inaction was clearly dangerous.

Schools in Saskatchewan must have one fire drill per month, according to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. The goal for younger children is to make the reaction to a fire alarm almost instinctive.

But for university students, fire drills have become a burden and an annoyance — not something instinctive that makes us head for doorways but rather something that is completely ignored.

In a sense, we have a reverse-Pavlovian response to fire alarms. While in elementary school they made us file out in unison, line up and wait until our teachers did attendance, we now barely have a momentary lapse before the student body starts talking over it again. We’ve trained ourselves to ignore it.

I have a proposal, though. When a fire drill is to take place, why not post it on PAWS? Let the student body know that those pesky drills will be going on during a certain time, on a certain day. This way, we won’t be left wondering if it’s just another drill or an actual alarm. This would allow us to be aware of our surroundings and, if there is an actual fire, know to leave the building. It would also allow us to be secure knowing that we aren’t just guessing but actually know what’s going on in our school.

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Graphic: Brianna Whitmore/The Sheaf