After tearing her anterior cruciate ligament, Maddie Robinson, freshman, uses crutches to help her walk, and the school elevator to help her get up multiple floors.
“It can take a long time sometimes and get tiring for my legs,” Robinson said.
However, on Thursday, May 7, the elevator by the nurse’s office was put out of order, causing students who rely on the elevator to have to use the stairs.
“It’s very inconvenient because I have to go up the stairs with my crutches,” Robinson said.
Senior Principal Dr. Kyle Devine said the issue, identified by Rockwood facilities, stems from the oil that lubricates the elevator. Once that oil becomes dirty, the elevator loses function and causes the elevator to become more shaky. A technician from an elevator company came because of the identified issue.
“He’s a tech that’s been over here a million times, so he knows our systems and knows the things that it’s able to kind of work through or small fixes or when it’s a bigger thing,” Dr. Devine said. “I met with him and he said that it was a significant issue that they were going to have to kind of work through.”
Dr. Devine said the process for fixing the elevator could take some time.
“When they come and fix it, they’re going to have to get in there and really take out lots and lots of parts and clean every single part just like you would do with, you know, an oil filter in a car is the way it was described to me,” Dr. Devine said.
Dr. Devine said that the elevator being out of use for so long is considered unusual for the school as that previous issues have only lasted a couple hours rather than a few days.
“This is just such a larger problem because the elevators are 30 years old and it’s just kind of time to get it all done,” Dr. Devine said.
Tracy Crawford, nurse, said the nurse’s office immediately found all students with elevator passes after the problem was identified.
In order to get elevator passes, Crawford said students must bring doctors notes to school just to ensure too many students don’t crowd the elevator.
“Thankfully, we don’t have any children who are wheelchair impacted this year,” Crawford said. “We also reached out to their parents to let them know, and thankfully, everybody was able to do the stairs safely, but we did give them extra time to safely do the stairs when it’s not passing period.”
