Kanawha County Schools deal with multiple situations

Jun 01, 2023

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It was quite a Friday morning for Kanawha County Schools. Superintendent Tom Williams detailed a host of situations which resulted in shutdowns or lockdowns for wide number of his county’s schools.

It started with an early morning storm which poured an inch of rain every half hour for a while. It was more than the system could handle at some schools, particularly at Anne Bailey Elementary where a new roof is being applied. The temporary roof couldn’t handle the rain and water got into the structure.

Students were sent home for the day from Anne Bailey and several other schools.

“We had water at Horace Mann, then we had no power at three other schools. We had a small fire in the gym at Capital High School. The fire department said we had to close for the remainder of the day while we reset the sprinkler systems,” Williams explained.

The fire was blamed on a set of rags which were used to install a new gym floor at the school which were placed too close to a battery pack. Heat from the battery pack ignited the rags which were soaked in the flammable material used to coat the floor. The school’s sprinkler system took care of the fire.

During the height of the storm a tree fell across the one access road up the hill to South Charleston High School leaving students there stranded temporarily.

Later in the morning, Williams learned five schools on the west side had been locked down and the Sheriff’s Department recommended a lockdown at Point Harmony Elementary School in Cross Lanes.

“From what I understand, there was a suspicious person with a rifle on the west side and the Sheriff’s Department had an investigation going on in Cross Lanes and recommended we lock down Point Harmony,” he said.

As if that weren’t enough, counselors are also on hand at Dupont Middle School after an accident witnessed by a number of students on a school bus.

“In the Cedar Grove area a woman was hit by a car and was knocked under one of our buses. The woman’s child and other kids were on the bus and witnessed this so we’ve been working with those kids today,” Williams said.

The condition of the woman is not known, she was taken to a local hospital for treatment.