Upon entering the building on the Monday morning on Feb. 9, all North Atlanta students and teachers were perplexed to find themselves wandering toward the gymnasium for an impromptu schoolwide get-together. By administrative directive, everyone was told to gather in the Hillside Building.

The chatter began to flow through the hallways as students began speculating what was possibly wrong with the Lakeside building. Sophomore Lauren Parkerson was in the locker room after the girls’ lacrosse practice. Among her teammates there was speculation that the school day was being interrupted due to a tornado warning. “It was raining and it was warmer that it usually is in the winter time, which seemed strange,” said Parkerson.

Not all rumors that swirled around the school were as seemingly plausible as a tornado drill. Freshman Grace Gardner heard the following outlandish tales: that there had been a school shooting, that a building pillar had fallen over, and that the school was completely falling apart. Most common among the outlandish rumors was that the ceiling on the building’s fifth floor had fallen down.

None of these rumors was even remotely true. The gathering in the gymnasium was related to an early-morning safety inspection for the building. But prior to this “all clear” signal from district engineers, North Atlanta students spent an hour with 1,650 of their closest friends in the school gymnasium.

Administrators were impressed with student behavior in the face of the uncertainties and inconveniences. For such a stressful time, most Warriors did a great job of remaining calm and following directions. “I was really pleased with student behavior and I thought everyone acted awesome,” said Jill Stewart, 12th Grade Academy Leader.

To cease all rumors about the building, APS released a statement to allay student and parent fears – and to put stop to unfounded rumors. The statement read: “Due to concerns with the concrete surrounding an expansion joint in the Lakeside building on the fifth floor, all students and staff were relocated temporarily to the North Atlanta High School gym. All students and staff are safe. Structural engineers have inspected the damage and determined that there are no structural issues with the building.”

All told, it was a wacky way to start another week of teaching and learning at North Atlanta High School.