MANSFIELD – Students at St. Peter’s schools were released early on Wednesday due to a motor vehicle accident sparking a major power outage.
Approximately 500 students from St. Peter’s Elementary, Middle School and High School were released shortly after 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning after a motor vehicle crash snapped a power line in half. Mansfield Police Chief Ken Coontz said the cause of the crash was excessive speed.
“A 21-year-old male was driving a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder when he struck a power pole at 282 W. Dixon and completely snapped it off,” Coontz said. “The car then continued to drive into the back of a house at 76 N. Benton Street.”
Both the male driver and a female passenger were unharmed in the accident. However, Ohio Edison of FirstEnergy was forced to cut the power in order to repair the damaged pole.
According to FirstEnergy, more than 350 different households and businesses including the St. Peter’s campus were affected by Wednesday’s power outage. As of Wednesday morning, FirstEnergy’s estimated power restoration time was 12 noon.
This prompted St. Peter’s to cancel classes for the rest of the day due to the power outage affecting the lunch hour. Today’s planned menu item: Sloppy Joe’s.
“We wouldn’t have been able to heat our food to the temperature required by the state,” said music teacher Angie Dillon. “Plus we would’ve been cooking in the dark.”
Dillon stated that parents of St. Peter’s students were notified via the Spartan Alert text message system, first of the power outage then of the school closing.
“Right now the students are in the classrooms with their teachers,” Dillon said.
St. Peter’s Director of Development Jason Crundwell was also serving as director of traffic on Wednesday as parents arrived to pick up their students. However, he noted the school would still look after students who were not able to be picked up in the morning.
“We’re going to have some leftover students who normally ride the bus,” Crundwell said. “We are holding them, we’ll find them lunch, and the buses will be here in the afternoon to pick them up.”
Crundwell noted that not only was lunchtime a main concern, but the power outage made teaching much more challenging.
“It was also hard in a lot of the classrooms to have instruction since we rely so much on technology,” he said.
As of Wednesday morning, Crundwell was still waiting to determine whether after-school activities at St. Peter’s would continue.
