Posted By Dave Westhead Could anyone offer me some guidance on the following problem. At my childs school they have a problem with malitious fire alarms, children are pressing call points on a regular basis (some times several times a day). My suggestion was possibly to have a box/cover over the call points with keys given to all staff for emergancey use, but after consultation with the local fire officer this was deemed unacceptable, the fire officer could not offer me any constructive guidance. I have have heard of pre-alarm covers which would sound locally if the call point was about to be activated and I would like any feed back from anyone who has used one of these covers. Thank you in advance for any information, Dave.

Posted By Zoe Barnett I've got a catalogue of anti-tamper alarms that can be fitted to alarms, extinguishers and so on. I've heard these in action and they make an astonishingly loud noise, so are a very effective deterrent as well as immediately alerting staff to the fact that the little darlings are messing about with the equipment. If you'd like a copy let me have your snail mail address and I'll put one in the post to you.

Posted By Robert Woods In response to Francis's reply. The local mental hospital has the alarms high on the walls where they hopefully aren't noticed by the patients.

Posted By Phil Gregory Further to the advice given I think you should be looking to identify the children responsable for the false alarms, and if necessary consider serious discipline measures. The School Governors should be taking a active role to prevent this problem by means of supporting the Head Teacher in any actions which are agreed, and also by contacting parents for their co-operation and support. Try bringing in somebody from the local education department to give a strong talk to the students in assembly. This may present the seriuos side of the false alarms to the children in a way that makes them all think. All children should be given information into the possible outcomes these false alarms could have. I am sure the local Fire Brigade would gladly help in the prevention of such alarms, maybe a few shock-tatic videos wouldn't go amiss Last but not least try putting some responsibility on the students to report the offenders even if you have to let them do it anonymously. For every false alarm a 15 minute detention after school or an extra cross country run may help encouage information to come forward. Be sure to record all your measures for future reference, as I'm sure that with these and the other precautions which have been suggested would show that the school has done as much as is reasonable practicable to prevent and control false alarms, should the need for a legal defence occur. I hope you find, this information useful, please post on this forum how you decide to deal with this issue, as I for one would be interested to hear. Good luck Phil Gregory TechSP