At 11:19 a.m. this morning, a power outage occurred at West High due to a thunderstorm. The power returned but went out again at 11:51 a.m. It was then restored at around 11:56 a.m.

Both the WiFi and power came back on during fourth period and classes still followed the regular schedule.

“We have had it happen before and communicate information to the teachers via email,” said Vice Principal, Luke Devries. “Students should stay in their classes and wait for instructions from their teacher.”

Many teachers found that the power outage was a major disruption to their class. World history teacher Holly Robinson’s class was taking a test at the moment of the outage.

“The excitement of what was going to happen was most distracting. Lots of kids thought they were going to get out early,” Robinson said.

A common misconception was that after 15 minutes without power, school would let out. However, Assistant Principal Molly Abraham commented saying that, that was false.

If this ever happens again, Molly Abraham, says “We would want students to stay in their classrooms until we can get around and let everyone know our plan.”

Updated: Wednesday, September 19