One recent weekend brought me way back to those fond memories of middle school.

During sporadic assemblies, our principal, Mr. Kish, would rampage through the auditorium, bellowing out the most important rules and the consequences of breaking them. Among those, Kish warned us not to pull the fire alarm.

"... Or I'll drag your butt down to the magistrate," he would growl, pointing an accusatory finger at random students.

Rarely, if ever, did anyone pull the shiny red lever.

Fast forward to 2004 in State College.

Earlier this month, someone pulled an alarm at my building at 3 a.m. for the 423rd time. The high-pitched, mind-numbing shriek continued for an hour and a half -- I think my ears were bleeding -- while everyone slept through the alarm, waited or kept on partying.

I waited for an hour after even the fire trucks left, and then called the landlord's emergency maintenance number. The woman told me workers were just arriving because they were busy turning off an alarm somewhere else in town.

That's just sad.

It's sad that the same thing was happening nearby, and probably in countless other buildings that weekend -- surely dozens of times this month alone. I felt bad for the firefighters, some of whom were probably woken up just to arrive at a building where some idiot pulled an alarm. I also felt bad for the poor guy who strapped on a bright vest and directed non-existent traffic away from the building at 3 a.m.

But the inconvenience of waking me and hundreds of others up isn't the only problem. It's also dangerous.

Does Seton Hall ring a bell to anyone?

On the early morning of Jan. 19, 2000, a raging fire killed three students and left 58 injured inside a university dorm. Several false alarms in weeks before the tragedy caused most students to disregard the alarm, until finally the halls filled with smoke and residents began screaming.

If the students, like here, hadn't become as accustomed to dismissing a fire alarm just as they might an alarm clock, those three students might still be alive today.

We here in State College and University Park risk that same fate every night when someone pulls an alarm.

In 2001, 189 false alarms in State College were reported to the Alpha Fire Co. There could be dozens more that weren't officially recorded. Another 162 alarms that year were actually legitimate.

Those are some death-defying chances for those of us who have become desensitized to the blaring alarms.

Fires do occasionally happen here. When one does break out, it's all too likely that most students will shrug off the alarm and go back to sleep or partying.

I know I would, along with nearly everyone else.

To those who act out a seemingly innocent, but realistically dangerous crime: Grow up.

We shouldn't need a Mr. Kish breathing down college students' necks, telling them how immature it is to pull a fire alarm.

This isn't middle school.