Emergency shut-off system floods Gateway High School

Reporter: Emma Heaton Writer: Matthew Seaver
Published: Updated:
Gateway High School flooding damage. (Credit: Shared with WINK News)

The School District of Lee County is cleaning up water damage after classrooms flooded at Gateway High School.

Our community is no stranger to water damage from floods, but if you have not noticed, we have not had heavy rain.

Over the weekend, there was a power outage that reset the emergency shut-off system in the science classrooms that turned on the water.

When the system is reset, any faucet turned on when no water was flowing started to run, filling up the classrooms and doing damage.

A spokesperson with the district said they don’t know how much the damage will cost yet. The work is being done as an “emergency repair” under existing contracts, and once completed, the district will be invoiced and submit an insurance claim.

Concerned parents argue the district should have learned its lesson the first time.

Gateway High School flooding damage. (Credit: Shared with WINK News)

A WINK News viewer, who asked to remain anonymous, sent photos of the damage at the school. Carpeted classroom floors were flooded, and water seeped through ceiling tiles.

The scene is what teachers at Gateway High School returned to on Monday morning.

“Sometimes, power outages in Southwest Florida are a common occurrence,” said Kevin Daly.

WINK News showed Daly, the president of the Lee County Teacher’s Association, the district’s statement about what happened; that the damage was caused by a power outage on Sunday that “Reset the emergency shut-off system in the science labs and turned on the water that is off unless in use.”

Fifteen classrooms had water intrusion, and only five are back in use. The district said it’s not the first time this has happened. Something similar took place last school year.

Parents are concerned that their taxpayer dollars are going toward fixing a problem that just happened, and they say it was preventable.

“It seems like the same thing happened twice. So maybe the system they put in place the first time wasn’t completely effective in solving the problem,” Daly said.

Some teachers use their own money to go above and beyond in decorating their classrooms. The district said it would pay to replace damaged items and that the school developed new procedures, so a reset doesn’t turn on any open faucets when the school is closed.

The viewer who shared photos of the damage with WINK News said that should have been changed after the first incident.

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