Jerry ZurekAt Cabrini, the fire alarm is pulled one too many times by the wise guys who are apparently looking for attention from their friends or trying to be the “cool kid.” I can remember the alarm being pulled more than a handful of times in Xavier my freshman year. I used to just try and stay in my room until public safety kicked me out because I figured it was someone trying to have a good time by bothering everyone else. I understand at times there are fire drills, but they are needed for public safety to know the fastest ways to evacuate students from danger.
I am sure most of you upperclassmen and even lowerclassmen may recall times this year or in the past years when the fire alarm has been pulled more than once and most likely by the same person. If you do know who it is, which most of the time people do, then you would most likely not even move from your room.
There are many people who know the sneak pulling the red boxed alarm in the dormitory hallways and after awhile I am sure it makes you angry. What if it is your friend? Do you rat them out or keep it to yourself? In my own case, I would probably keep it to myself but after awhile, I would want it to stop and let the dirt out. Waking up that late at night to nonsense may make it hard to go back to sleep or even be able to wake up for a morning class. Most times public safety may have to act like cops. In a way, they are the law and have to enforce the rules. When they see people being suspicious or even knowing who the friends of the culprit are, they may take action on you to find out the truth. What if they threatened you into getting in trouble, wouldn’t you tell? Most of the time, when you get into trouble, it goes on your record.
Letting public safety know the truth leads to the future of waking up to the fire alarm scared that it could be something wrong and not laughing and thinking, not that kid again! Telling on your friend is only giving them a write up and keeping yourself from having trouble in the future with public safety and also the school. We are in college now. If you saw someone stealing money from work, for example, and your boss confronts you and threatens your job, wouldn’t you tell him?
Pulling fire alarms shows the childness and immaturity that some students may still have. If you do not get caught or in trouble for foolish things or pranks like pulling the fire alarm, then you will never learn from your mistakes. I remember when the one kid who pulled alarms got in trouble and kept doing it until he got in serious trouble. If you really do not want your friends to get into deep trouble, and you know they are going to do something wrong, try and talk them out of it. Think of something better to do that wouldn’t worry everyone else.
Pulling the fire alarm is not that funny of a joke. I could understand if you pulled like a senior prank or wrote stuff on your friends door for fun and wouldn’t tell, then that is understandable. When you are putting peoples lives at risks by having them think it is all a big joke and not worrying about the real consequences, then that is something you should get in trouble for no matter who is telling on you. Being a friend is like being a brother or a sister, but when your siblings were picking on you when you were younger, weren’t you telling your parents because it was bothering you? Of course, everybody did that! Being a snitch is sometimes not a bad thing. You do not have to tell on people all the time and be that person. Some people have their own opinions about things and you should always just follow what you feel is the right thing to do.
So, I am not exactly saying, run! Tell on your buddies, hurry up! I am saying do what you think is the right thing to do and for own safety. In the future, when you hear that alarm in the middle of the night, it bothers you and you know the culprit, let authority know to keep yourself out of trouble and most of all out of danger!
Posted to the web by Tim Hague
