Raising the Alarm

On October 18th the school installed new alarms for the doors by the high school gym. The alarms go off 8:00am to 2:50pm. If you try to get in, or go out, the alarm starts. When the alarm goes off, a loud blaring noise radiates through the halls and into the classrooms nearby. One classroom impacted by the alarms is Mr. Wolf’s room. “They’re loud and right next to my room,” he says. Students also expressed concerns about the alarms. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s insensitive to people with sensory issues. Woodstock prides itself on helping students and the PALS (Program for Alternative Learning Styles), yet has loud alarms that go off,” Freshman Alexis Reed says, noting the PALS room is right down the hall from the alarms. “It is pointless. It should be redesigned to not make that loud noise disrupting the surrounding classes. In my AP chemistry class it went off 3 or 4 times and she (the teacher) had to stop because no one could hear her over the noise. Also anyone with mental disabilities would maybe not benefit from it, the alarms could even make it worse for them,” Senior Danielle Swett explains. The alarms do have a reason behind them though. “The purpose behind the alarms is to have security in this building. We don’t have a buzz system like the other system at the entrance. We actually don’t have a lot of people on the end of this building with eyes on those doors. So students were letting in random strangers, and angry parents. That left us with no line of security around here. Especially with Covid we don’t need outside guests in the building right now. So we had to do something to prevent people from coming in,” Dean of Students Ms. Leland says. Mrs. Leland responded to the PALS concern. “So our hope is that myself and Ms. Dupont are fast enough to shut off the alarms and the alarms themselves shut off in a few seconds. We haven’t heard any complaints personally.” PALS Program Director Katie Kardashian expressed concern about the alarms. “Any type of loud noise is dysregulating.” When the alarms do go off, they shut the door in hopes to cancel out as much of the noise as possible. There may be negative opinions about the alarms, but they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon due to security needs.