Students Were 'Great' During Flooding Cleanup at High School

Tuesday morning’s broken pipe and flooding at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School was not serious enough to send home students, said Principal Eric Tracy.

The cap on a heating pipe burst at about 7 a.m. and at about 7:15 a.m. Tracy said he decided that students should report to the cafeteria and auditorium to start the school day.

Students went to the cafeteria and auditorium “without any issue at all” and were “patient and cooperative” as they waited for firefighters and school staff to complete the cleanup.

“We had to delay school for about 50 minutes while we cleared the water that was on the hallway floor and in several rooms,” he said, after the cleanup was complete and classes had returned to normal. “It wasn't bad enough to send the kids home, we just needed to be sure things were safe and not slippery before getting people back in place.”

Once the school day got going at about 8:30 a.m., the length of each academic period was reduced, he said.

Students were “great” as the dealt with the changes and in the end, Tracy said the impact was “really minimal in the big scheme of things.”