Blown Away by Doherty’s Windstorm?

Attacked by Literally Every Element

Brad Conway

Rich Mahan knocking broken glass from the shattered windows in the Doherty cafeteria on February 13th.

Maeve Gennett and Mae Sayers
February 14, 2019

Ash Haag
Several staff members helped to sweep up broken glass in the cafeteria.
Maeve Gennett

Ash Haag
A close-up of the shattered pane shows that this happened on a day with blue skies. Winds picked up during 4th period and broke windows just before students would have been dismissed for lunch.

 

We’ve been attacked by the Fire Nation, the Water Nation, and now the Wind Nation. The Earth Nation is right around the corner.

 

We need to stay strong and prepared.

On the 13th of February 2019, Doherty faced, unfortunately, its second bout of building damage wrought by unforscene, elemental circumstances, of this year. Earlier this year the school flooded due to a ruptured water line, causing students to be out of school for an entire week, while clean up and repairs took place. On a small scale, many students returned to their lockers of ruined homework papers; while, on a much larger one, water damage deemed our own main gym unfit for occupation. Two years ago, May 11th 2017, smoke enveloped much of the building from the art hallway, calling for early dismissal. Subsequently, with another fire igniting from unrelated circumstances in the building, students (to our jubilation) were released early from the school year.

Recently, on February 13th, the school building was hit with sudden high winds, causing breakage of several windows in the cafeteria and library. Plus, nine car windows in the parking lot were damaged. Fortunately, no one was injured, but many students faced a bit of hunger and boredom due to being forced to remain in their fourth period from 11:05 am to 3 o’clock pm. Powers Blvd was shut down due to downed power lines. Additionally, several businesses around the school were closed due to power outages.

Doherty Security Guard Jodee Mullenax told us her thoughts on the event, “It freaked me out at first. I thought it was overreaching to keep kids locked in all day, but safety first.”

As a community we know Doherty can recover and grow from this disruptive event, as we have before.

From the student body to our faculty, we thank you for all your hard work and dedication to our safety and well-being.  Principal Gardner reflected about the damage: “Once again we faced a challenge. we met it head on, we figured out a plan, and we moved forward. As with any adversity that we face in life, the lesson we learned teaches us to be adaptable, flexible, and to persevere.”

As Spartans we will stay strong. We before me.