After countless alarms have been set off this year, students filed out of classrooms slowly, heading for the football field, asking each other if they thought it was “real” this time or not. Today during fourth period, a Palo Alto High School student activated the fire alarm system, according to assistant principal Jerry Berkson.

Berkson says that his greatest worry is that the school’s population will begin to ignore the alarms despite the possibility of a fire.

“My biggest concern is that with all of the alarms going off and all of them being false alarms, people start not paying attention to them,” Berkson said. “Then, if we did happen to have a fire sometime, they would not be prepared.”

According to Berkson, reacting quickly and appropriately to each fire alarm is vital to all on Paly’s campus.

“It’s really important that even though they have all been false alarms that everyone takes them seriously every time,” Berkson said.

According to Berkson, the investigation into the identity of the perpetrator is underway, and he is unsure of whether or not the student will be caught. Berkson says that he will be reviewing tapes, and if the student is identified, they will be suspended and possibly cited.