Lights out at TeWinkle

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- When TeWinkle Middle School students first found the

lights out in their classrooms Thursday, they thought it was great fun

Then reality set in, Principal Sharon Fry said.

“We had no phones working, they couldn’t buy things from the vending

machines, there were no lights on in the bathroom,” she said. “All of a

sudden, they began to realize how dependent we are on electricity for a

lot of things in our lives. I think this will be a wonderful learning

experience for teachers to really discuss tomorrow.”

The school had a limited amount of power in the morning, when Fry was

notified of the problem at 6:40 a.m.

But the remaining power had to be turned off before Southern

California Edison could repair the culprit, a transformer that blew out

Wednesday night, she said.

Lesson plans -- which Fry said were followed “creatively” and to the

degree possible without electricity in the morning -- were thrown out at

about 10:45 a.m., when the school learned the power would be out for the

rest of the day.

Students had a practice evacuation drill, did homework and took turns

having lunch. New food was brought in because school employees were

unsure if the refrigerated food would still be safe to eat.

Parent volunteers, district employees and staff members called parents

on the emergency phone line, the only working phone line for several

hours, and between 500 and 600 students -- about half the school --

received permission to leave early.

Fry said she was impressed by the students’ good behavior and the

community’s willingness to pitch in.

“It was not a life-threatening emergency, but it was certainly

something that altered our school day,” she said. “People really just

jumped in to help, and that’s a nice sign of what a compassionate

community and staff we have.”

The transformer was scheduled to have been fixed Thursday night,

although power was still out in the late afternoon.

And despite rumors Fry said she heard among some students Thursday,

school is expected to open as usual today.