By LINDSAY CAREY
STAFF WRITER
A leak in the heating system at John F. Kennedy Middle School forced one class to evacuate the room on Tuesday, Dec. 9 around 12:30 p.m.
Assistant principal Kelly Latham said a leak occurred when one of the joints of a pipe in the heating system gave way and a non-toxic product called “glycol” leaked out.
Nineteen students and one teacher were evacuated and relocated to another classroom, according to Latham.
Newfield Construction workers, who are handling the renovation at the school, immediately came in to work on the leak and Director of Operations Pete Romano immediately headed to the school to assess the situation.
“We were very lucky, because only one room had to be evacuated,” said Latham.
For the remainder of the day, the staff made sure to keep students out of the hall and made sure the area was clear in general.
Latham also said that work would continue to be done overnight to repair the pipe.
“They’re going to be working on the room all night going to make sure it’s done before the kids get in to school tomorrow,” said Latham on the day of the incident.
According to Romano, the school had a cleaning company come in after the incident to clean up the liquid.
“It’s a liquid that when it dries it’s like if you ate fruit it’s really sticky on your face,” said Romano. “It’s really sticky, but it washes right off.”
He also said that there was definitely some damage to the ceiling tiles and possibly some of the desks in the classroom.
Romano could not confirm if personal property had been damaged by the leak. However, the heating system has been repaired and the school has made sure that everything is sanitary for classes to return to the room.