Locker Room Fire

Examiner's article:

BURLINGAME A firebug in the boy's locker room forced the evacuation of Burlingame High School on Tuesday as firefighters quickly doused a smoking pile of clothes. Central County Fire Department firefighters were called at 1:23 p.m. to the school at 1 Mangini Way, according to county records. Once there, they discovered a locker set on fire in the men's locker room, Principal Matt Biggar said. No one was injured,? Biggar said. The Fire Department is investigating it.? Clothes, shoes and possibly books were set on fire as two classes of freshmen and sophomore students were exiting the locker room. They were going to a physical education class after putting on their workout clothes, Biggar said. The school will interview the approximately 40 male students in those classes as they search for the apparent arsonist, he added

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- Written by Fiona

Comments

[Inside Scoop]

I have heard that the students who started the fire were caught, but not punished. In order to return to class, they were required to sign a contract that stated that they would not start anymore fires at school.

It seems that during the fire, classroom fire alarms were sounded and students were evacuated from classrooms only to have the principal cancel the evacuation...twice. Principal Biggar sent the students back to their classrooms even though there was a real fire on campus and the fire department was arriving on the scene. Is there a legal (moral) issue of a school official not evacuating a building during a fire?

This fire incident in on the heels of a bomb threat last month were the students were evacuated from classrooms, but were told that this was an unannounced drill. The students took the drill as a joke (as they do many drills) and fooled around during the evacuation. At the time of the evacuation, the threat was real, it just wasn't communicated to the students.

What would be the ramifications of death or injury in either of these incidents if the problem turned out to be a real threat?

[bhsp]

Flashback from past posts.

The problem with Mr. Biggar has nothing to do with his age or even his experience, or lack thereof. He emanates a certain aloofness, as well as a certain need to appear "in control" when, in fact, he's very much not in control.

Case in point: I happened to witness a fire drill on campus recently. Mr. Biggar was outside, visible, and ostensibly participating in the activity; his actual leadership skills were very much AWOL, though. There was little semblance of control or organization.

In this day and age, disaster drills are something that need to be taken very seriously, perhaps more so than anything else that ensues on school campuses. If this incident is any indication of Mr. Biggar's "care" for our children and/or his ability to manage, I would suggest that everyone who is involved with BHS open their eyes.

Matt Biggar moved into his position two years ago, inheriting a high achieving staff of teahcers and administrators, plus a challenging building project. It was and is a large and challenging job. He inherited an AP/honors program that was second to none (segments of which he has decimated in the past two years - ask you students about the history department). He has significantly weakened the administrative staff with the elimination of Dave Sullivan, and has now removed one of the major student advocates in sending Ed Larios off to Hillsdale high. Are our students better off? Ask them. Is student morale and spririt better? I'll guarantee it doesn't approach what BHS had twelve years ago, or seven or three. If you're new to the school, there is no way you can know this, but at a minimum, ask you student what he thinks of the administration, school spirit and morale, as well as their classes. If you have gotten to know any teachers well enough to have the conversation, ask them what they think.

...as a manager, he is removing anyone who disagrees with him...and that is very bad management policy for those of you who have experience in that area. Matt is new, Sam Johnson, the disrtict superintendent, is also new, and the kids are the ones being adversely impacted.