DALLAS — Dallas School District parents and students can now add another disruption to the long list of them from this school year.
More than 500 students from the Dallas Middle School will report to the high school Monday due to a faulty fire alarm at their building.
It’s the latest inconvenience in a school year that has seen class time missed for a teachers strike, a broken pipe at the high school and a record-setting blizzard. It also comes just a week after an eighth-grade dance was moved due to a small fire at the middle school gym.
Superintendent Thomas Duffy said the middle school’s fire alarm activated Thursday and continued doing so Friday.
The fire-detection system was investigated, and Duffy said there were no issues found.
However, for the safety of the children, all middle school students were taken to the nearby high school.
Students in the district are attending school until June 30 due to a teachers strike in November.
Dallas Middle School sixth-grader Reagan Halbach said she was walking toward the school Friday, just like any other morning, when she noticed a crowd out front.
She asked a friend what was going on and was told the fire alarm “went off three times, and they were waiting for a technician to arrive.”
The students were escorted to the high school, where they were offered breakfast in the common area and sat in the auditorium. But there was no instruction time, and many of the students got rides home early from their parents.
Reagan’s mother, Joann Halbach, said she received the automatic call the district issued, which stated the students were removed from the building while a diagnostic fire alarm test was completed.
“I think the district is doing the best they can,” Joann said. “Keeping the children safe is the most important thing.”
Sixth-grader Sarah Hastings was being picked up by her grandfather, Bob Hastings.
“She called me and asked me to come and get her,” Hastings said.
Sarah said the middle school’s fire alarm went off Thursday during seventh period.
Duffy confirmed the problem with the building’s fire alarm began Thursday.
“Randomly, even after school yesterday, our fire alarm was going off,” Duffy said.
