<p>Well my last day as a high school senior began like any other day. It wasn't until around 11:20 that hell broke loose at Jupiter High School. I was collecting my graduation stuff and yearbook and heading to my car to store it until after school. On my way out, the fire alarm sounded and I just laughed thinking someone pulled it as a senior prank. Oh how wrong I was.</p>
<p>It wasn't until I got back from my car but to walk into the main office where the fire alarm control panel sits that I got the full story. (I have this all on camera, I will update with YouTube link ASAP.)</p>
<p>I hear administration screaming "live fire" constantly to each other. One asks "Should I call the fire department?" Someone grabs the red emergency telephone and calls the police and fire department.</p>
<p>This all was occuring during the examination of AP US History...but the alarm went off with just 5 mintues or so left, according to students taking it. (I wasn't taking it). Test takers said that proctors instructed them to stay inside the testing area despite the fire alarm, thinking it was false. Once they realized it was a live fire, they were still instructed to stay until tests were collected, even with two minutes left, according to the test takers I spoke with.</p>
<p>The whole school meanwhile was basically outside in the parking lot waiting for instruction. Because it went off at a time just before lunch, the majority of the students were not in class at the time, so organization was a mess.</p>
<p>Eventually, the fire is isolated to one section of the school where a sprinkler system extinguished it. We were allowed back into the courtyard/common area but instructed to stay away from the area where the fire had occured. By this time, fire trucks and police were on scene.</p>
<p>I went and got food inside the cafeteria, but it seemed weird...there were no administrators watching the cafeteria. They were all too busy tending to the fire and crowd control outside. You know what that means when there is no one watching a cafeteria full of high school students…a food fight. The first lunch (Lunch A) immediately erupted into a food fight, later resulting in my AP Calculus teacher charging in as if he were on fire to control things. Things did eventually calm down, but my Calculus teacher made sure by climbing on top of a table and shouting at the top of his lungs for everyone to, “SIT DOWN AND EAT OR GET OUT!”</p>
<p>I later finished my food and went on to my fifth hour class. There things almost seemed normal, but because my first lunch was interrupted, I opted to go to Lunch B (the second lunch). Now, a cafeteria full of administrators, things should be okay, Right? Wrong! About 10 minutes into the lunch, a MASSIVE, I mean MASSIVE food fight broke out involving throwing of condiments, corn, plates, cookies, anything that someone could grab and throw was picked up and thrown across the room. For a period of 40 seconds or so, the whole cafeteria was filled with food flying through the air.
Administrators at this point were overpowered and required the assistance of the police department. </p>
<p>I heard them shouting over their radio equipment for the main office to call the Jupiter police department and have immediate backup and assistance. (Jupiter High School is located adjacent to the police department, so response time was almost instant).</p>
<p>Starving, everyone was forced out of the cafeteria and told to go to their sixth hour class (even though fifth hour was still in session). Police could be seen every 40 feet or so instructing people to go to class and just to keep crowd control. I witnessed police from Beach Patrol and K9 departments. </p>
<p>It is also interesting to note that the cafeteria riots and disruptions affected the AP European History examination too and the constant announcements over the school-wide intercom system probably also annoyed test takers.
Finally, as both lunches ended and 6th hour was officially in session, things calmed down, but administration was very upset and on an elevated security status.</p>
<p>I have photos & videos of the day’s events being uploaded to the Internet as I write this entry. I will update when more information is available.</p>
<p>I hope the test administrations don’t get canceled due to this severe problem that happened.</p>