The Fire Drill: A Recreational Activity

Today I was teaching a class and the fire drill started going off. I, of course, had no idea what was going on, nor what to do. Luckily, their normal teacher was also in the room, so I just turned it over to her.

First she just sat there and waited for the alarm to go off. Then, when she had determined that it definitely was going to continue, she told her students to go down Staircase C. I was ready to run out the door when I saw that students were (ever so slowly) packing up their things, organizing their notebooks, putting on their coats, and milling around in general with no momentum towards the exit. The teacher was (to my shock) handing out papers and discussing the homework with the students. After a good three or four minutes, finally people start to mosey out the door, down the hallway, down the stairs (of Staircase B, no less). While I wandered with the general crowd, I noticed students going to the bathroom, calling their friends on their cellphones and exchanging bisoux with the people they run into.

There are supposedly 2,000 students in this school. When I got outside (finally) it looked as though there were MAYBE 300 that had made it out, about half of which were standing up against the building which was supposed to be burning down.

This is why I must say that I sincerely hope there is never a real fire at this school. Ever. A+