AP Students Affected by Fire Evacuation

       Smoke clouded the second floor of Stuyvesant and traveled into the lungs of students and faculty as they were evacuated on May 9, just before the fourth period start bell rang. The source was a phone that caught on fire by the senior atrium. Minutes later, fire trucks with their sirens blasting rushed towards the school. Though the evacuation was a minor inconvenience for some, it meant lost testing time for others taking the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture Exam.

Almost immediately after the initial evacuation, rumors that the flame stemmed from a student playing a popular mobile game began to spread like wildfire. Senior Deyan Reza—who witnessed the fire—confirmed the rumor to be false. “An unknown senior was playing with his phone, and he bent it, and it started smoking, and he dropped it. And then it caught on fire,” Reza said.

The smoke that emerged from the phone became overbearing for many students. “There was a lot of smoke. The fire wasn’t that big, but the smoke—it filled the entire hallway,” Reza said. “And the smell was really bad. It was like burnt circuitry. That was the smell of it.”

For those taking the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam, the fire was a surprising interruption. “[The test takers] were like, ‘no way this is actually happening,’ and we thought at first it was just a drill, so we didn't really know what to do [...]. I guess we just thought it was really funny that we were having a fire drill [during] the AP test because we never had that before,” senior Henry Ji said.

Despite these setbacks, the proctors were able to quickly adapt following the evacuation and continue testing as normal. “When we got back to the building, our proctors had everything settled down to retake attendance. And then they had everyone log back [into] the portal [and] fixed any text tech issues. And then after that they just started the next section,” said Ji.

The effects of the fire evacuation on test takers varied. Some groups of takers were mostly unaffected. “For me it did not [have an effect] because [...] we were in the middle of a break,” said Ji. 

However, other groups lost out on the time allotted to complete the exam as a result of the evacuation. “Another group, they actually started the next section after the break, which is the writing section, when the evacuation happened. So they did in fact lose some time because they just spent a lot of time outside of school and couldn't do the writing,” said Ji.

The students taking the AP exam were not too bothered by the lost testing time, since most seniors have set their college decisions. “I also don't really care about my APs, especially because I don’t get college credit for [them],” said Ji. 

Although test takers were able to record how much time they lost through a form, it is unclear how this will affect the grading for the exam. There has been no indication from the Stuyvesant administration nor the College Board regarding how the time loss will be accounted for by the latter. “I think [test takers] filled out a form saying how much time they lost, but I’m not [really sure what will happen] after that,” said Ji. 

Nonetheless, the fire drill—while unexpected—allowed many of the test takers to relax, especially considering they were outside breathing fresh air. “It also did make me feel a little more refreshed because when you take an AP break [...] you’re just wandering around the hallways, using the bathroom, and you don't really feel that refreshed, but we basically went for a walk outside,” Ji said. “So in a way it did kind of help the testing experience because even though we were a little shaken up by the whole evacuation, it was also a way to relax outside and de-stress.”