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On Thursday of this past week our school was struck by lightning.
I was on my planning period and my students were in their elective classes when
this occurred. Because of the storm, all the PE and our other electives located
outside the main building were being held in Core Class classrooms so I was
writing my lesson plans in the workroom.
I heard several rumbles of thunder and then, outside the window,
everything went white. I knew the lightning strike had been close, but I had no
idea how close until a colleague came in and told me the building had been
struck, black smoke was coming from the section of the building hit, and we
were evacuating all the students to the gym.
The evacuation announcement had to be spread by word-of-mouth
throughout the building because the strike had caused all the computers and
phones to shut off when the breaker flipped. The breaker did its job, and we
didn’t lose any electronics, thank goodness.
I immediately went into the hallway and began helping guide
students in a quiet and orderly fashion towards the gym. Going to the gym from
our building required a short walk through rain as the hallway of the building
we usually use to make the trip during inclement weather happened to be the
same building the strike had targeted.
The students deserve a lot of credit for the way they conducted
themselves during the evacuation. There was no pushing and shoving, very little
noise, and they listened to and followed instructions with no hesitation or
question. Practicing fire drills and other such emergency procedures sure paid off.
The fire department responded instantly to the situation. We are
blessed to have a firehouse right across the street. After inspecting the
building that was struck, and the rest of the campus, just in case, they
quickly determined how lucky we really were.
As it turns out, the lightning strike had tripped a switch on
one of the rooftop HVAC units, causing it to change from air conditioning to
heating, activating the heat strips. The burning smell the students detected
was the dust being heated by the strips and then circulated through the vents.
The black smoke, which had quickly dissipated, appeared to have been caused by
the same dust.
After an hour of diligent efforts by the fire fighters and
police, it was determined that the building was safe to reenter. Again, our
students moved back to their classrooms with the same efficiency and good order
with which they’d evacuated.
Us teachers were afraid the excitement of the evacuation would
have our students so keyed up that accomplishing any further teaching would be
nearly impossible. Such turned out not to be the case. Remarkably, the
students, after a relatively few minutes, calmed down and got right on task.
The rest of the day turned out to be very productive.
Our students impressed us very much during and after the
lightning event. The way they handled the situation was commendable. Now we
know they can comport themselves in a manner appropriate to the situation.
While that is good news for us, it may be bad news for them, as it raises the
bar for our expectations of their behavior.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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