Shaker Heights High School and the district’s administration building lost power shortly after 10th period today.
An email sent to students and staff at 3:31 p.m. stated conferences were canceled and the lower cafeteria is open for students to wait.
An email sent to the community at 3:54 p.m. said the high school lost power after dismissal and all after-school activities such as conferences and sports practices were canceled. The email stated the district would send another email when power was restored.
Sophomore Justin Taress said it was chaotic when the outage occurred. “It was pretty crazy because I was unsure of what was going on, and the directions weren’t very clear on where to go,” he said. Taress said it annoyed him because he missed out on conference time, and the lack of communication frustrated him. “I was supposed to be at practice. If I had known what was going on sooner, I could have gotten a ride home,” he said.
Associate Principal Elizabeth Massey directed student traffic after the power went out. “I went into the hallway to help because it was right at dismissal. I made sure the kids knew where and how to exit,” she said.
Junior Malayia Cross said staff gave confusing directions, which made the situation worse. “Every staff member I saw in the hall made it a bit chaotic, yelling about students needing to leave. It made the students have a clear confusion,” she said. “Outside of staff reactions in the main hall on the first floor, it was pretty mellow.”
Massey said she has experienced a power outage at the high school before. When the power went out Feb. 25 just before school started, Massey said administrators prepared for future outages. “The power went out before students came a couple weeks ago. In response, we made a plan for if that ever happened again that we were going to use the lower cafeteria as a holding space for the kids,” she said.
Cross said she avoided the command to go to the lower cafeteria and that she hopes that there is no school tomorrow. “I was in Anatomy class, wrapping up a clean-up from a dissection and was considering whether or not I wanted to go to my Animation class for conferences. There were only a few people left in the class, and we all paused before celebrating the idea of no school tomorrow. I was able to leave before I was sent to the lower cafeteria,” she said.
Assistant Principal Patricia Rashid said administrators got instructions to make a plan to help control the situation. “There was a directive for us to come together as an admin team, so we had to navigate through that,” she said. “Power outages are something none of us can control. Hopefully, whoever came to fix it actually fixes it so that this doesn’t keep happening.”
Senior Zuri Bagakas said the strategy of moving all students into the lower cafeteria was irritating. “It was so annoying. It’s worse than being in school,” she said. “It is just so crowded since everybody is in here, I wish instead of forcing us to be in this place they just let us go our own separate ways.”
Senior Erynn Dubose said students’ overreactions to the power outage were unnecessary. “I was on my way out when the power went out. It was just so annoying because everyone was yelling for no reason. It was pretty intense. Someone even tried to start a fight with me because I said something about everybody screaming,” she said.
Rashid said that because many students were attending conferences due to the band trip, which begins tomorrow, some classrooms of students were allowed to remain in the building. “Some students were in conferences to catch up on work or take tests. The classes that requested to be accommodated, and had enough light to continue with what they were doing, were accommodated. As long as the teacher requested that they be able to complete what they were doing, and the students felt safe, then they were allowed to be there,” she said.
Campus Assessment and Activities Coordinator Courtney Starr said outages like the one today are common with the weather Northeast Ohio has been having. “I’m not that surprised this happened today,” she said. “There have been outages all over the area, cancelling school and affecting people.”
A message on shaker.org stated Lomond Elementary School was closed yesterday due to ongoing power outages.
An email sent to the community at 7:11 p.m. said power to the high school and administration building was restored and that the school and offices will be open tomorrow.
Bagakas said she was relieved the high school experienced a power outage. Said Bagakas, “I was glad for this to happen. I was just tired of being in the building. There has just been too much going on with spring break about to start.”
Kara Ekeberg contributed reporting.
