— Fifth in a Series —
Wed., Sept. 30, 1998
I’m sitting in class and I hear a ‘thud’ so incredibly loud that I am sure if I look out the window the sky will be falling. And I can’t help but think that somewhere in this building, a house has just fallen on my sister.
— Amanda Lehmert, senior, Bristol Central High School
Wed., Sept. 30, 1998
I couldn’t think in history today. My head was pounding and it wasn’t from the cold I’m coming down with. No, it was from all the that terrible clanging coming from the direction of the construction. The sound echoed in my ears and bounced of the walls. I almost couldn’t stand it anymore! But finally, it stopped. I was rejoicing! Now maybe I could think straight. I finished up what I was working on and put my head down on my desk, hoping to catch up on some of the ZZZs that I missed last night.
But as soon as I got comfortable, the banging started again. I sighed and thought: “Will it ever stop?”
Well, the answer to that question is yes, but not before I’m long gone.
— Liz Tinker, freshman, Bristol Eastern High School
Friday, Oct. 2, 1998
Sure it’s a nuisance, but I can take all the noise. I have even learned to live with taking a roundabout way to class. And the fact that one of the bathrooms doesn’t have running water for the sinks is a thing I can work around. But today was the last straw: these hard hat bullies bagged up the last openly available water fountain in the whole school.
This is an atrocity! It is unthinkable that a person should have to go a large part of the day inhaling fine construction dust into her lungs, and not be able to wash it down with a refreshingly cool drink from a fountain. What has this school come to?
They may as well just turn off the electricity, send the teachers home, and take away my books, because I cannot work like this.
— Amanda Lehmert, senior, Bristol Central High School
Friday, Oct. 2, 1998
12:10. Finally. After sitting through an hour and a half of my English substitute babbling about Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” I was definitely ready for lunch.
The bell rings, and I’m walking down the hall with my friend, talking about the varsity football game that night. The conversation stops and I’m looking in front of me. All of a sudden a panel from the hallway ceiling slips out of its place above us and lands on the head of the girl right in front of me. It doesn’t hit her too hard, but it did hit her.
She brushes it off and keeps on walking. Life goes on. No one cares.
Later I talk to a friend about what happened. He told me about how earlier in the day he had almost got hit with a clump of wires. Well, all I can think is, has it come to this, where we’re getting hit with objects falling from the ceiling when we’re in school?
— Suzanne Gregorczyk, freshman, Bristol Central High School
Monday, Oct. 5, 1998
So there I was in first period daydreaming about my knight in shining armor, when I was rudely interrupted by a loud thump. Needless to say it was the construction. I looked up sharply, noticed that my nails needed to be done and then settled back into my daydream. Once again I was caught off guard. One time is enough but twice is to much. There you have it, life under construction is extremely hard when you are trying to fantasize.
— Shaunte Miller-Ligon, freshman, Bristol Eastern High School
Wed., Oct. 7, 1998
Today I stood in the rain with dozens of other sleepy-eyed, slow-moving second period students, wondering what was really going on. A fire drill at 9 A.M., in the rain, for no apparent reason.
Rumors buzzed within the small crowds of similarly dressed students that it was all about the renovations. The work had somehow found a fire alarm. No, I thought, it couldn’t be that simple. Inconvenient, sure, but no, not this. I was sure there was some other explanation. I was wrong, but then, I often am….
— Joe Wilbur, junior, Bristol Eastern High School
