Elizabeth Kilbride and Danielle Sorcher
News Editor & Features Editor
A leak sprung Friday, Feb. 11, around 1:00 p.m., starting on the third floor and creating puddles of waste water in two chemistry rooms, a third floor prep room, the English Office, the Writing Center, and the spiral staircase area on both the first and second floors. According to Assistant Principal Larry Sullivan, the water is not sewer water, and not hazardous.
“We were all sitting in chem class, doing a lab, and then suddenly someone pointed out that there was a huge puddle of water on the floor,” junior Daisy Bishop, who is in science teacher Donna Kemp’s class, said. “We saw it reached all the way across the classroom. Then someone said to grab our bags, but one bag was already completely covered with water. We all grabbed our stuff and ran out; it was extremely smelly. It smelled before but we only made the connection when we saw the puddle.”
According to junior Teresa Montanari, whose backpack got completely wet, the smell was like sulfur.
Junior Olivia Marcus, who was in science teacher Jay Spooner’s chemistry class at the time of the leak, said there was water spreading over the whole floor from one corner. “The Assistant Principal came in and told us not to panic, so they didn’t let us out, but we were worrying because there was water over the wires and computers under Mr. Spooner’s desk,” she said.
“It looks like one of the pipes backed up upstairs,” Assistant Principal Dawn Bartz said. “They shut off the bathroom water upstairs just in case. But it’s not the roof, so you don’t have to worry. That was my first fear.”
“To the best of my knowledge, we think the drains of the sink got backed up and the pipes are dripping all along the second floor,” Principal Tony Pavia said. “It looks like the pipes have drained, which is why it stopped dripping. We have the whole maintenance crew here right now looking at it to figure out what’s wrong. I think there might be a blockage.”
“From time to time we’ll have issues with sinks on the third floor,” he said. “Honestly, it’s always been that way. All bad things start on the third floor; this just brings back fond memories.”
Photos by Elizabeth Kilbride
