At 8:33 a.m. on Jan. 21, a fire alarm went off at Wayland High School. Students were told to make their way to the student parking lot to wait for further instructions. Given that it was a few minutes before school’s start time, many student were still arriving to school as their peers were evacuating.

With temperatures of just nine degrees Fahrenheit, many students went to their cars, left campus or did their best to stay warm outside. After about 10 minutes, staff instructed students to either go to the field house or commons to continue waiting out of the cold.

When the alarm went off, teachers and students alike were confused about the cause of the alarm. Teachers were not notified ahead of time, which led many to believe that this was not simply a drill, and instead was a real emergency.

“I have no clue what’s happening,” history teacher Patricia Halpin said. “Given that there were not any police cars here, I would think that it actually was something.”

Police and fire trucks arrived at the school approximately five minutes later and searched the building while students and teachers were evacuated.

At 9:10 a.m., WHS Principal Allyson Mizoguchi sent an email stating that the alarm was due to “a malfunction,” and that the system has been reset. Students returned to their classes at around 9:00 a.m.