Class was cut short for fourth period English classes on February 4, not because of the polar vortex or snow, but a gas leak.

A little over halfway through class, students and teachers began to smell natural gas in their classrooms. “It smelled like rotten eggs, like natural gas, and one of them even said, ‘I think I’m getting a headache,’ so we left as soon as they had another room for us,” English teacher Ms. Katie Belanger said.

Three classrooms were emptied mid-lecture and students, and teachers were asked to gather in the cafeteria or other classrooms. “I started class and after about ten minutes of independent reading Dr. Skinner came in and said, ‘I think we have to put you in a different room,’ so we were sent down to room 139,” Belanger said.

Dr. Susan Skinner, Dr. Adam Ehrmantraut, Mr. Dean Laird, Ms. Cami Dahlstrom, and Mr. Matt Weingartz were all trying to discover where the odor was coming from. 

The leak only affected two class periods, and students were back in their regular classrooms by sixth hour. “There was a sixth period class that was back in here, so I think they had it cleared out by then,” Belanger said.

It was discovered that the gas leak was not coming from BSM, but from Beth El Synagogue, who was also evacuating people from their building. Luckily, nobody was hurt and the leak was contained before anything worse happened.