Hallway at Northgate High School
Math/Tech Class at Northgate High School – Student using cell phone as light
Northgate High School is in session, despite the power being out.
The all-indoor school has been in the dark all day.
One parent told Claycord.com kids who showed up for school during zero period at 7 a.m. had to wait outside until school was unlocked at 8 a.m. When they entered, it was pitch dark.
Others are saying kids are sitting in pitch black classrooms with no windows.
Parents have been unable to contact their children because phones at the school don’t work, leaving many to find their child on their own if they don’t have a cell phone.
The Mt. Diablo Unified School District sent out an automated message, saying any kids who want to go home will have an excused absence, but school has not be cancelled.
Foothill Middle School and Walnut Acres Elementary are also without power today.
UPDATE: School at Northgate has been cancelled for the day.
The following message was sent to Northgate High School parents:
Given the dynamic situation at Northgate High School, and in coordination with the Contra Costa County Fire Marshall, we have made a decision to close Northgate High School for the remainder of the day.
While we had hoped to be able to provide opportunities for school to continue today, the continuing impact of not having power has created the need to make this decision.
We will be working to connect to parents via phone calls, and text messaging through School Messenger system with this information
We will continue to provide updates to our Northgate Community, and broader MDUSD community as possible regarding the changing situations across the county.
We will be gathering students and working to release them accordingly following standard procedures.
Thanks you for your patience and understanding as we are all working to respond to the PG&E “Public Safety Power Shut-down.,”
photos: courtesy of parent of student at Northgate High School
30 comments
How is this acceptable?
Parents go get your kids out of there. No power also means no life safety systems Incase something happens. Can’t believe the school district is willing to put those kids and faculty life at risk by remaining open.
This could be considered criminal since I doubt they even have set up any fire watch to protect those within the buildings
Schools get paid if students show up!
What could possibly be SO important as to keep a school open without power?
>A valuable lesson
Have you been outside at all today? It has been smokey and unhealthy to breathe since early this morning. While, sure, if it was a clear nice day, take class outside in some shade, but day like today? 8 hours of that air, you’re liable to send some poor kids and teachers to the hospital.
The school’s money! Because that is their number 1 care.
But school should be closed when there’s no power.
Yes my daughter got to school at 7:30 and the zero period kids were stuck outside while the students that drove had to wait in their cars because it was to dark in the school (I guess that somehow changed at 7:50) Once they were allowed in the building it was to dark for teachers to teach. Most classrooms don’t have windows. Is it safe? No. There’s no PA system in case of emergency, cell service is terrible and they school phones don’t work so you can’t call in. Thankfully someone reported to the fire marshall and he shut the school down. I get the schools are trying to give a “safe” place, but if it’s dark, no communication and an indoor school, is it really safer to be there than at home or did the school just want to collect the money the students bring in?
I believe 100% that it was all for the money…. When the kids wanted to leave they had to say they were “sick.” When a child says that then the school gets paid. Northgate wouldn’t have gotten paid if everyone left due to the blackout. But now with the haze and poor air quality, they may just get reimbursed. It definitely was a waste of my morning and Northgate should be ashamed in allowing these kids to be stuck in the cold and in the dark!
They got their ADA money for the day. That is all they cared about.
Foothill still has no power and I’ve been told their bathrooms are not working. The kids are lining up to use the 1 working bathroom in the school office….
Call the health department and let them get shut down. This is crazy.
Bathrooms not working? Plumbing problem? Lack of water due to empty neighborhood storage tanks? A sewage lift station not working due to power outage?
Where did you get the map of the blackout area for this post? I would like to see a larger pic. Also, thank you to the person who reported this to the Fire Marshall. Totally unacceptable.
https://www.pge.com/outages
If the power is going to be out longer than an hour where I teach we start calling parents to come get the kids as it is not safe. If we know ahead of time we close. This is just another reason MDUSD needs to be shut down and broken into smaller sections.
While I completely agree with no school if there is no power especially in a room with no windows allowing light in, the freak out of not being able to contact your children is a little dramatic. I guess most that have relied on cell phones and allowed their children to be nose deep in one has forgotten the concept of land lines. Remember people they wk even if power is out.
Schools have VOIP phones nowadays. They don’t work if the power is out.
As a former high school student myself, I can confirm that this would have been fun for a day, after that it would get old fast.
Absolutely insane and sounds to me like child endangerment.
Hope the fire marshal gives them hell.
This could spell trouble! Nine months after the 1977 Big Blackout in NY City the birthrate jumped significantly.
Absolutely unsafe for anyone entering a dark building let alone sitting in a dark classroom!! Who is the idiot that decided to keep the school open? I would be beyond angry having a young teen being in an unsafe position.
Shameful🤬
Eagle Peak Elementary was also open today.
What a bleepin!! Joke.
This is so out of hand!!
A school that conducts class in unsafe dark conditions, with the air quality being unhealthy is run by IDIOTS! A greedy idiot who didn’t want to loose ADA money but didn’t mind putting teachers and students at risk, and needed the fire Marshall to explain a common sense concept. Hope I’m not being too harsh.
I agree @wiser!
Shame on the district and every parent who sent their child to school today.
They were so dumb to think of keeping the school open with dark rooms, no power. I wouldn’t have taken my child to school regardless of it was or wasn’t an excused absence.
Power outage or NO power outage…. I’m still stuck on the fact that some rooms have no windows!
I remember once when our vice principal at NHS said Northgate was designed by four architects who never met My father went to NHS and said it should have been torn down a day after it was completed.
I’ve lost all trust for MDUSD. i’ll be calling the fire marshall tomorrow whether or not there’s power to make sure my kid is safe! Because it’s obvious money is valued more than student safety …
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