A first person narrative of the WY power outage

Dillon Jacobson, Sports Editor

On Wednesday, January 13, as I walked into the Arts Building on my way back from Mariano’s, the school was covered in eerie darkness. Suddenly, my friend Sophie Leib-Neri ’16 burst out of the orchestra classroom, “Dillon! The power’s been out since 12:30!” Confused, I didn’t immediately process what she had just said. Then, behind her, where I would normally see Mr. Mascari’s desk and rows of chairs arcing in a semicircle towards the door, I saw only darkness. Finally it clicked, and the questions started running through my head, why is the power out, are the rest of our classes canceled, is everything ok?  Naturally, as a senior, I was more worried about whether class would resume rather than my own safety. As I continued to walk through the 2nd floor of the Arts Building towards the Arts Bridge I saw that the hallway doors were closed. Ok, now this is freaky, I thought to myself. I was concerned that WY was in some sort of lockdown mode. However, as I walked up to the doors and pushed them, they swung right open.

From the Arts Bridge I could see the Blue House lunchroom, hallways, and classrooms, all dark except for one sole light that somehow was still on. Once I was back in Blue House, everything seemed calm. The students were eating their lunches in the dark, like any other day, and I felt at ease as I walked to a table to sit down. I saw Mr. Locks bring his class outside to sit under the one light still on next to Mr. Fanning’s office. Eventually Dr. Kenner’s voice came on the P.A. She reassured us that everything was fine and that the power had gone out while one of WY’s engineers was on the roof working with our electrical systems. Then, she announced that everybody should remain in their current classroom through the end of the period until further notice. At that moment, Blue House erupted with cheers and clapping; Dr. Kenner was still speaking on the P.A., but it was impossible to hear her over the students who were celebrating their good fortune at being able to stay out of class until the power returned. People were taking snapchats, playing music, even a “one six” chant was started as if somehow the power outage was part of a senior blackout. The minor reprieve was short-lived, however, because at 12:55pm students were told to go to their next period. My 6th period class, being a classroom with lots of natural light, continued as per usual and at 1:30pm the lights came back on.