Firebugs Attack Ballou High School

Remember when you were in high school and you'd walk past that bright red fire alarm and wonder what kind of chaos you could cause if you pulled it?  But you never did, because you were afraid of the consequences.  Perhaps you believed the rumors that pulling it would cause an ink capsule to explode on your hand, thereby making you an easy target for the wrath of the principal.

Man, kids today. They just don't understand. At Ballou High School in D.C., firefighters have been called to the school 40 times since the school year began in late August, reports the Post.

What's worse? That there are that many false alarms, or that in 13 cases, the firefighters have responded to actual fires?

The actual fires have been small ones -- garbage cans set on fire, papers burning in the stairway, etc.  There haven't been any injuries, just a lot of smoke and confusion, disrupting classes.

When buildings are evacuated, students tend to disappear for the afternoon.  One girl told the paper that "people just go home, and they miss out on their education."

The school is working with D.C. Fire officials to develop a plan, no doubt led by a task force, so that firefighters can stop visiting the school on it's twice-a-week pace, and so that kids have to (GASP!) stay in their seats and pretend to learn.

Why, when we were kids, after walking uphill to school with our 70-pound packs full of stone writing tablets, we gladly sat in school 13 hours a day, and wouldn't evacuate come fire, hell or high water. Many of us still have eyebrows that won't grow in right, thanks to the lap of the flames.

Kids today. Sheesh.