UPDATE 12:43pm: The wifi became available for the entire building around 9:30 AM. No word on the cause of the outage.
Hazelwood East High suffered an internet outage on November 4 at the beginning of school. Possible causes include storm outages.
East students, staff, and administrators are experiencing negative impacts from this outage.
Ruben McKenny, a senior at EHS, notes the confusion that comes with the outage. “A lot of students are used to typing their work on their Chromebooks, and when they can’t get to their work, it can be frustrating. It prevents us from having all of our notes and causes confusion.”
Teachers and staff are also suffering from the internet outage.
“Not having internet derails all of my plans and causes chaos in the classroom”, said Mrs. Goff, Journalism teacher. “Not only do I have to pivot quickly to ensure students have learning materials, I have to manage behaviors caused by any disruption”.
Mr. Macklin, the freshman Assistant Principal at EHS, also sees the ripple effect of the internet outage on student behavior.
“As a principal, I am unable to look up student information when I need to, and it can also cause classroom disruptions.”
He mentioned that he already had to speak with a student about leaving the class because she felt that she didn’t have anything to do.
It seems like internet outages, even brief ones, can take a toll on everyone at EHS.
Alicia Mata • Nov 4, 2024 at 2:42 pm
Great insight on a 21st century problem! This might become a springboard for discussion on a district-wide backup plan in the case of any future outages. Gathering insight from students to teachers to administrators showcases the impact of an outage building-wide rather than limiting it to classrooms.
Kayla Cebulski • Nov 4, 2024 at 1:15 pm
Very thoughtful and timely journalism! This really highlights how these outages can disrupt the entire day for students and staff. Incidents like this really help us understand how detrimental lack of technology can be for us!
Mr. Batchelor • Nov 4, 2024 at 1:05 pm
So wonderful to hear from how this impacts learning. We have such a reliance on the internet that even a minor issue can disrupt learning for maybe even the week! Loved hearing from everyone from Principles to Students to Teachers.