"School's been blown to pieces"

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2004-05-11 02:08pm

Not quite, really, but the way things are going it seems like a distinct possibility.

First, a little background: my high school has had construction going on since before the beginning of the school year, mostly adding on a new wing and gymnasium, but remodeling the library and cafeteria too. A couple weeks ago some workers in the library accidentally crossed some wires and set off the fire alarm, but all us students got inside before 15 minutes passed.

Which brings me to today. Everyone was ordered to evacuate the school because of "fumes" around 12:20 in the afternoon. I can only assume that there was another accident with the construction. We waited outside in the sun for about half an hour before we were told that the buses were going to take us home early. No one was allowed back in the building except to get necessities like keys; the upshot of that being that most of us won't be able to do our homework tonight. While on the whole this experience has been positive (no homework, a couple less hours of school, interrupting an organic chemistry test when I'd forgotten the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols) I can't help but feel that all this is leading up to some great catastrophe in the future.

Oh well. At least I got to tell you guys a vaguely interesting story.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-05-11 02:14pm

The danger of hiring incompetant jackasses

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-05-11 02:19pm

I had something like that in the spring of my senior year of high school (waaaaay back in 1994). Half of the schools in the district (my h.s. being the worst) were closed due to extremely high levels of asbestos. it took them 6-8 weeks to clean it out. after two weeks they came up with the bright idea of double sessions at a cross town high school. Everyone was missing most of their books, and if they had them, they didn't admit having them. we had the second session and an shortened day (noon-5pm) Furthermore athletes who had games, still played at the regular time and were excused early. It was one big waste. My computer science class was PASCAL 7 and the other lab only had QBasic lol. i spent that time playing wolfenstien 3d

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-05-11 02:44pm

PASCAL 7, ah, that brings back (horrid) memories.

Anhaga · Post by **Anhaga** » 2004-05-11 02:45pm

My school used to be split into a Primary school, a secondary school and a junior college on three seperate campuses. The primary school was in an old building so they built a new one at massive expense with fund raising drives and all that fuss.
Now, two years after a spanking new primary school has been built, thye're tearing it down and combining all three levels of school on a single campus.

Incompetence. And lack of foresight. Luckily I finished junior college years ago so I don't have to participate in any more @$@^@$!$%@ fundraisers.

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2004-05-11 03:30pm

That ain't nothing. Caltrans hit a 12 inch major gas pipeline next to my school yesterday afternoon. All the student apartments were evacuated near it, approximately 1,100 students. I was forced out before I could even grab my wallet or cellphone. We were allowed back in at 2:30 am.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-05-11 04:08pm

The roof of the Chemistry lab collapsed at my old high school after a snowstorm last year. Not sure if class was in session...

I also remember the time a fire gutted the guidance office. That was pretty bad.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-05-11 04:53pm

My old school has had its share of bomb threats, alarms, etc. Once even there was a bomb threat from some jackass islamic fundie (my neighborhood has a sizable jewish population). Turned out to be an empty threat, but it was still quite annoying.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-05-11 08:19pm

Just for an opposite: A local school was recently put into lockdown because somebody broke a mercury thermometer. None of the kids could leave their classrooms after school because they were waiting for the hazmat team to come and clean it up. Because anything involving mercury is technically a hazmat situation. IIRC, the little poison control label on those things say that if you break one in your mouth and swallow some it's okay because there's hardly any in there.

Oh, and my mom's high school was leveled by a level 5 tornado, back when she was in school.

Jawawithagun · Post by **Jawawithagun** » 2004-05-11 08:40pm

Alan Bolte wrote:Just for an opposite: A local school was recently put into lockdown because somebody broke a mercury thermometer. None of the kids could leave their classrooms after school because they were waiting for the hazmat team to come and clean it up. Because anything involving mercury is technically a hazmat situation. IIRC, the little poison control label on those things say that if you break one in your mouth and swallow some it's okay because there's hardly any in there.

Swallowing is not really a problem. The problem is breathing the fumes.

Bob McDob · Post by **Bob McDob** » 2004-05-11 09:39pm

Yeah, this happened to someone I know too.

"There was a gas leak in one of the bio labs, and the teacher refused to believe the kid who reported it... and it kept going for two hours... until somebody else noticed it, and they had to call in a hazmat team to clean a hall of the school. It was freaky, because my next class was in the same bio lab, and as I was leaving braille they announced that the entire hall should be evacuated and people should report elsewhere..."

This sort of thing seems to be surprisingly common

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-05-11 10:50pm

Andrew J. wrote:While on the whole this experience has been positive (no homework, a couple less hours of school, interrupting an organic chemistry test when I'd forgotten the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols) I can't help but feel that all this is leading up to some great catastrophe in the future.

You forgot the difference between the three types of alcohols? Shame!

muse · Post by **muse** » 2004-05-11 10:54pm

phongn wrote:You forgot the difference between the three types of alcohols? Shame!

Ethanol gets you drunk, methanol makes you go blind and die, and isopropyl's for first aid use.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-05-11 11:05pm

It's best not to think too much about the inherent risk of pressurized natural gas pipes running into every ill-maintained home, tenement, or commercial building in your entire neighbourhood.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-05-11 11:08pm

Darth Wong wrote:It's best not to think too much about the inherent risk of pressurized natural gas pipes running into every ill-maintained home, tenement, or commercial building in your entire neighbourhood.

Especially if all the buildings are wall-to-wall rotting-wood townhouses for miles...

One earthquake and New Orleans is history. Whatever doesn't go under the waves will burn to a crisp!

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2004-05-11 11:12pm

Just to add in my own personal expericnes, back when I was in 10th grade, towards the end of the school year, during the senior's final exams, someone poored karoscene all over the floor of one of our buildings. It was, shall I say, an explosive situation. We had to evacuate of course. I don't remember them ever catching who did it though, so I guess they were successful in pushing back their test.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-05-12 02:12am

My physics teacher had organized a team to try and put together a rocket for some competition or other. It was to be a multi-stage rocket that could carry an egg up to something like 1500 ft and return it safely to the Earth.

They were going to demo it for the AP physics class, and were preparing it in the classroom. We were all mostly milling around, when suddenly:

*FWOOOOOSSSSHHHHHHHH*

Part of the rocket took off in a cloud of smoke. I dived under a nearby counter, worried about the possibility of the rocket deciding to circle the classroom or something equally improbable.

Eventually it stops, and we all get out of the classroom. Fortunately it had been the third stage of the rocket; the first stage might well have punched through the wall and gone right into the chemistry teacher's storage closet.

AP Physics teacher: "This never happened."

Then the chemistry teacher came over to see what happened, and then we chatted a bit...

He asked me "Isn't there some code for this? Some official designator for when a launch goes wrong?"
I replied "Yeah, it's called a massive fuckup."
He chuckled at this. He would, being something of a pyromaniac. ("Today, I'm going to demonstrate thermite!")

Fortunately the only damage was a burnt poster and some singed pants.

---

Later they tried again (assembling the rocket outside) and launched it. It took off, and then the engines died. I waited for the second stage to ignite.

As I waited, the rocket slowly lost speed, then began to nose down. Oh, shit I thought, if that thing ignites while it's horizontal...

But it didn't. It just nosed into the ground, fortunately.

Shark Bait · Post by **Shark Bait** » 2004-05-12 02:21am

We had the same problem at my school last year about the same time. The entire school had to wait on the football field though, and I'm fairly sure every religious kid was praying for just one tiny little spark.

jenat-lai · Post by **jenat-lai** » 2004-05-12 03:12am

My Highschool was (/is) a Christian school and got it's fair share of bomb threats. One term we had 4 in about as many weeks.

The school backs onto some bush/forrested area in a gully, and has in the past lost part of the Home science, textiles and a storeroom durning a bushfire in 1992/3 which destroyed much of the area (some houses nearby were completley destroyed by that, plus one "urban" suburb lost something like 150 homes). In 1997 there was another bushfire and part of the back fence was destroyed by that, plus some minor damage to the reconstructed Home science, textiles and woodwork area. (lost a few windows and an orning out the front) plus half of the field area grass ended up black.

We had a hoax bomb threat during the HSC, but it was for 3 unit maths, and didn't effect me. yay.

Our school was also once evacuated in 1997 about 12 noon due to the fire I mentioned before

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2004-05-12 05:51am

You people are so lucky. I wish my school would burn to the ground!

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-05-12 01:13pm

When my district was building a new wing onto our high school the first contractor got six weeks behind schedule in the first two months (which basically involved nothing but digging a big hole) and managed to knock out power to the rest of the high school and the middle school across the street by dropping a huge tree onto a large transformer. We went through another two contractors before the job was finished, though much to the finnal contractors credit it was basically on budget.

Now they've just finished renovating one of the district elementary schools, months behind schedule and well over budget (a lawsuit is now underway) because the incompetent workmen cut open the roof and didn't cover the holes when it rained, resulting in massive water damage to the areas they'd just finished renovating. That job also went through three contractors. A lot of the trouble is because by Pennsylvania state law the district must take the lowest bidder, but not all of it, we have some real morons in charge of things.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2004-05-12 01:15pm

And I thought the Philippines was screwed up

Heh.

Post by **Kuja** » 2004-05-12 02:23pm

I remember one normal day in english class when someone ran through the hall squealing like a Halo Grunt: 'We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die!' Then, before I had a chance to say "What the hell?" the fire alarms went off. We were all marched out and sent home with no explanation.

The next day, the school news reported that we'd recieved a bomb threat. They had recorded the call and were going to play it so that anyone who might recognize the voice would report the perpetrator. Now, you have to imanige the next paragraph being spoken in a harsh, grunting type of speech, almost like an ork.

"You humans is gonna pay for watcha done to us! We gotten a bommer in da auditorium and you better start getten da folks outta da scholl before somepin bad happens, ya hearen me? Bye bye!"

Someone, preseumably the same person, set off some fireworks in the coatroom of the aud and ended up setting some props on fire.

Damn funniest prank I've ever seen.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2004-05-12 03:42pm

Turns out some workers were using industrial glue on the roof and the new ventilation system sucked into the building. 5 students and 2 teachers felt sick and were taken to a hospital in ambulances.

They aren't going to work on the roof during school hours anymore.

Falkenhorst · Post by **Falkenhorst** » 2004-05-13 04:55pm

When I was a freshman, some dumb gangster wannabe wrote a bomb threat/death letter to one of the deans at my HS. They evacuated the school and searched it up and down. The trouble is, my one friend really was going to blow up the school, and they found all the pipe bombs he had in his locker.

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