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Five students at Grissom High School were arrested this week for pulling the fire alarm at the school. Rendering a false alarm is a Class A misdemeanor. (File photos)

Five students at Grissom High School were arrested this week, all for the same crime - pulling the fire alarm at the school.

Administrators caught each of them in a unique way - dye packs hidden in the fire alarms that burst when the alarms are pulled. Each student was charged with rendering a false alarm, which is a Class A misdemeanor worth up to a year in county jail.

Keith Ward, a spokesman for Huntsville City Schools, said three alarms were pulled on Monday alone. Despite those students being caught by the dye packs, a fourth pulled the alarm on Tuesday and a fifth pulled it on Wednesday.

"They had an issue earlier this semester with kids pulling the fire alarms," Ward said. "So they took the initiative and put these little dye packs in the alarms to catch them in the act."

Aside from being against the law, the false alarms are considered a threat to student safety. As such, they violate the students' code of conduct.

Each of the five students face expulsion for their prank, Ward said.

School administrators have sent a letter home to parents encouraging them to talk to their children about the crime, the waste of public safety resources it causes and the possible punishments they could face.