Power outage disrupts school day

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Clover Hill High School lost power for two hours and 31 minutes, disrupting classes, bathroom procedures, internet, and lunches throughout the school.

The outage began at 11:49 a.m. during third period, and power was restored at 2:20 p.m. According to English teacher Caity Gladstone and an outside source, the outage was supposedly caused by a tree that fell on a power line near the Sandy Ridge Neighborhood and Genito Road, blocking the road.

The outage came after students and teachers had already noticed unusually high temperatures inside the building. Gladstone said two chillers were out before the power outage, leaving classrooms without sufficient air-conditioning.

Junior Layla Baker said the heat was affecting her ability to get through the school day.

“I’m very tired,” Baker said. “I definitely feel like the temperature has a little something to do with it ‘cause it’s very very humid and very hot, not an ideal temperature to be in a school.”

The outage also created problems with the bathroom’s online passes. At 11:57 a.m., administrator Carol Deliazard came into classrooms around the 300s hallway and asked teachers to hold students from using the restrooms for 15 minutes because the sensors controlling the sink’s water faucet were not working.

Senior Mercy Jenkins encountered the issue when she needed to use the restroom during the outage.

“The toilet works, but the sinks in the main hall [bathroom] didn’t,” Jenkins said. “I had to use hand sanitizer.”

The bathrooms remained open and accessible, but the lack of lighting added another layer to the problem.

“The bathrooms did have some emergency lights, so it wasn’t pitch black, but it was darker than normal,” Jenkins said.

The outage also affected lunch service, leaving students unsure whether they would receive the meals they had planned to purchase. Teachers were instructed to collect student identification (ID) numbers from students planning to buy lunch and indicate whether they wanted beef or chicken. Administrators had to release classes individually to retrieve their lunches from the cafeteria. Jayla Ford, who works in the front office, was among those updating the building on the procedures for lunch over the Public Address (PA) system.

“If you have a student going down for lunch, next to their ID number, please just write beef or chicken,” Ford said.

Before the outage, students with A Lunch were served hot food in the cafeteria, but after that, students left class when they were called to retrieve their meals. With an influx of students who wanted to purchase a hot meal, the cafeteria ended up running out of the beef and chicken options that were initially offered. As a result, yogurt and chips became an option, and several students were displeased because lunch had already been heavily delayed, and now they did not even receive a substantial amount of food.

Senior AJ Norman was among the students who received yogurt as their meal.

“They told us that we’d be getting a beef taco. I went down there, and it was just yogurt,” Norman said. “I got corn, carrots, and chips though, so that was pretty cool.”

Although disappointed, Norman was grateful that the cafeteria provided some food and alternative snacks.

“I’m not that upset, I am just happy to have something ‘cause I didn’t eat breakfast this morning,” Norman said.

Senior James Scott, who regularly brings a frozen meal for lunch, faced a different problem. Without power, he was unsure whether he would be able to heat his meal.

“I’m gonna starve! I brought a frozen meal for lunch,” Scott said.

Beyond the cafeteria and bathrooms, the outage also disrupted classroom instruction. The school’s internet went down with the power, preventing some classes from accessing assignments and instructional materials on Chromebooks.

Other classes, however, were able to continue with previously planned work. History teacher Scott McCandlish had already scheduled a pen-and-paper test, so his students could continue working on it despite the outage.

“We were working on a test, but it was a pen-and-paper test, so they were actually able to keep on working on the test,” McCandlish said. “The students did great in the situation.”

Even with his class able to continue its work, McCandlish said the heat became increasingly difficult for students and teachers.

“Everybody’s kinda hitting that wall of ‘alright it’s hot’,” McCandlish said. “It’s really hot in the classroom, [we’re] trying to figure it out.”

Gladstone was in the middle of reading a play with her Dual Enrollment College Composition class, and when the power went out, she acknowledged the unusual circumstances, yet wanted her class to stay on top of their work.

“In hopes of this [class] staying status quo, let’s keep going [with our classwork] so we’re not too far behind,” Gladstone said.

Gladstone also received a text from her sister outside of school saying that Dominion Energy estimated power would be restored between 2 and 5 p.m.

For some students, the extended school day became another source of frustration. Senior Cara Barker said students who did not have a fourth period, including those with reduced schedules, were still required to remain in class unless they had a work conflict.

“It doesn’t even make sense why they would keep us here if the power is out,” Barker said. “If a kid has a car, why don’t we just let the kids with the cars go?”

Power was restored at 2:20 p.m., ending the 151-minute outage, and students remained in third period until dismissal.

Power outage disrupts school day

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