By Brittany Sa

On March 18th,  a continuous leak in the freshman homeroom wing of Woodbridge High School developed into a sinkhole. Fortunately, only one student fell victim to the sinkhole, and she was not injured.

For weeks, students were getting hit by the steady drip of water coming from the ceiling, under which custodians had placed a trash can in an attempt to reduce the damage. However, this did not work, and the water puddled the floor, causing the ground beneath the vinyl tiles to pool with water until the ground was soft, causing the floor to collapse into a sinkhole.

“I was just walking to class, trying to get to algebra without someone trampling me,” freshman victim Katie Applebottom said, “when the floor collapsed beneath my feet. I fell in, but luckily, I didn’t get hurt. At least I got to miss class for a day.”

After the incident, janitors cloaked the hole with some lost and found jackets until they figured out a way to fill or patch the noticeably large sinkhole. “If you can’t see it, it’s not there,” said the head custodian.

That same day, the AP Chemistry students conducted tests and found traces of weak acid mixed into the water. Rust particles, combined with the water within the ancient pipes overhead, caused the hole. The Federal Environment Inspectors, or FEI,  were called in to make sure everything was up to code, which, unfortunately, it was not.

According to their findings, the FEI has decided that WHS will be closed for the rest of the school year and, starting after spring break, all students will be attending Colonia High for the rest of the year.

“We can’t know for sure when WHS will be open to the public again,” explained WHS principal Mr. Lotman. “Upon further inspection, they discovered that the school is built on a bigger air cavity underground, and we need to fix the problem before people may enter the building again.”