Walking onto campus on Monday, September 18, the Eagles found the school covered in homecoming decorations made and displayed by the students. Between a broken lift, a gas leak, and the fire alarm going off, there were complications at every turn.
“We knew it was going to be hard, but it was definitely underestimated,” junior Christopher Humphrey said.
On Sunday, the fire department arrived at the school because of a gas leak found in Ms. Scott’s room by the junior class sponsors. With no idea how long the gas was leaking (potentially since Friday) and CO2 registered on the fire department’s sensors, this event took Ms. Dawes’ and Ms. Tydlaska’s attention away from the students.
“It was challenging because we weren’t down there with them helping them,” Ms. Dawes said. “We were focused on making sure everybody stayed safe.”
Already behind, they faced another setback. Not an hour and a half later, dust particles stirred up by the commotion set off the fire alarm. The fire department came back to the school, and everyone in the building was evacuated for about thirty minutes.
Adding insult to injury, one of the scissor lifts broke. They were left with only one to share between everyone. The seniors had the privilege of using the lift first, leaving the juniors with only an hour of _ before the fire alarm went off.
In spite of these setbacks, the seniors still finished their work because, according to senior Bamidele Aina, “I would say luckily seniors at least get the privilege to stay longer.”
Along with the problems they had already faced, another aspect contributed to the chaos. According to junior Bahi Elagami, even though Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent planning, that was not nearly enough.
“We had to actually come up with more of the plans while we were working,” senior Marcus Carranza said.
Although there seemed to be many factors in the way, they still found pieces to be proud of and enjoyed the work.
“I’m most proud of the creative ideas,” freshman Ellie Cummings said.
The decorations seen from every view of the school showcased the hard work that the students poured into their school. Their efforts contributed to making “homecoming” homecoming.
