Fairmont area power outage sends high school students home early
Oct. 18—FAIRMONT — Fairmont Senior High was one of approximately 170 customers hit by a power outage on Thursday.
FirstEnergy spokesperson Hannah Catlett said the company received a report of wires down around 10:30 a.m. at 417 Washington St. in Fairmont. The outage lasted from 10:30 a.m. to about roughly 2 p.m.
As a result of the outage, Marion County Schools elected to dismiss students early.
"Anytime we have power or water outages or anything like that, there definitely is an impact," School Superintendent Donna Heston said. "The first lunch had been served at Fairmont Senior and then our wonderful staff and administration and students worked together to get that second lunch fed, because we like to do that before we send students home."
Heston said getting that second lunch served was important because for some students, it might be the only meal of the day they have. The school was in its first lunch shift when the power outage struck.
Students were dismissed by 11:30 a.m. Although the school does have a contact assigned to them from the power company, they receive the same information any other customer does.
Heston said when there's any kind of outage, school staff takes a priority of care to ensure students aren't sitting in the dark or other conditions for prolonged periods of time. She added during outages, safety and security is the highest priority.
Utility outages have been impacting schools around the county. The most common culprit are water leaks. Jayenne Elementary dismissed students early on Wednesday from a water leak. Fairview Middle and Fairview Elementary did not have students report to school for the past two days due to a water leak, Heston said.
"It's much different when you are working with high school age students for an early release than it is when you have elementary school students," Heston said. "You want to ensure notice goes out quickly so that families can make provisions, particularly with younger kids, to meet those busses and make sure they're home. So it's definitely a multi-faceted process, but one we have protocols in place for. It's a smooth oiled machine."
