A fire alarm went off in Room 215 of the English Building at 1:35 p.m. while an English teacher was acting out the graveyard scene of Hamlet to his class.

According to assistant principal Chuck Merritt, English teacher James Hanmer was using a fog machine to increase the intensity of his act, and in doing so, the fog managed to trip the alarm and send the whole school to the football field.

“I think it’s pretty funny. I was actually in the class that set it off,” said senior Amanda Wong, “Hanmer was acting out a scene in Hamlet and used a fog machine, which actually set it [the alarm] off.

According to Principal Jacqueline McEvoy, this fire alarm will account for Paly’s November fire drill.

“Everyone did a good job,” McEvoy said.

Even so, according to McEvoy, the fire department did not even show up to the alarm.

“My concern is that we have to coordinate better with the fire department because we’re not sure what happened between our alarm and them,” McEvoy said “They didn’t show up, so we’ll debrief about that as well.”

Although Paly’s principal may have a fairly positive opinion on the drill, many students are upset over the lack of coordination and planning for fire drills in general.

“I commend Paly for having a national emergency drill, but the amount of class time and unorganized nature of the drill is discouraging,” said senior Mia Pond.

Paly’s first fire drill was on Sept. 19 of this year, and was also considered inefficient by most students. According to Merritt, even though there has been over a month and a half to improve Paly’s coordination in these events, little has been done.

“We need to do more training of everyone, but this is better than our last drill,” Merritt said. “We’re improving but not as fast as I would like.”