As a what-if exercise, I wanted to see what people's thoughts were about the report that someone (perhaps a student) had pulled the fire alarm to get people out of the building. Is that a good thing to do when some sort of mass attack is taking place?

I suppose the logic is that it gets people out and away from the danger.

My initial instinct is that it was not a good idea. Warning everyone is smart, but having them flood into the hallways could increase the number of casualties. Basically, I think it's mostly a race against time--how to minimize casualties until the cavalry arrives, whether that's a school resource officer from the other side of campus, first responders from outside, or even people inside the school figuring out what's happening and dealing with the threat themselves. The "fog of war" certainly applies in this situation and it's hard to act when you don't know what's happening.

Hmmm, actually, come to think of it, we don't know who pulled the alarm. The suspect could've pulled it himself to create a "target rich" environment in the hallways.

I forget where, but there was a mass shooting outside a middle or high school by two kids where they deliberately pulled the fire alarm to draw people outside where they could shoot them with a rifle.