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Emergency dismissal irks school parentsBy PETE REYNOLDSThe old saying “where there’s smoke there’s fire did not apply Wednesday in Tinley Park. But some parents are still burned.Officials at Helen Keller school and Kirby School District 140 took no chances after an electrical problem caused a short circuit in a copying machine, filling the school at 7846 West 163rd street with smoke.School officials evacuated nearly 650 students within two minutes and Supt John Bannes ordered classes dismissed at approximately 10 a m. after electrical power was lost at the school.PUBLIC WORKS crews laboring in the area severed an electrical cable that put the school’s three-phased electrical system out of whack at about 9 a.m., Bannes said.But despite the fact that, according to Fire Chief Robert Bettenhausen, the “fast but orderly evacuation went off without a hitch, some parents are angry and concerned that the emergency telephone tree” plan to inform them of an early dismissal fell short of expectations.found nobody he knew at home,Finally a neighbor who heard her door bell ring repeatedly, went outside and saw the discouraged child walking away from her home.Schultz questioned the wisdom of early dismissal.“Why not take 125 children to each of the other five school buildings in the district and have the Keller teachers watch over them until the school is absolutely certain they will be provided for when released? Schultz wonderedACCORDING TO Schultz, his son wasn’t the only one to experience that feeling of being abandonedSome of the older kids, fifth and sixth graders with house keys, were watching over others until parents arrived home, very surprised to find a house full of children One family in the Tanbark subdivision arrived home to find nine children sheltered in their home, he said In a rather heated telephone exchange between Schultz and Bannes. Schultz said the superintendent admitted he “blewit.
Newspaper Details
Tinley Park Star
Tinley Park, Illinois, US
Sun, Apr 15, 1984
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Boyd C.
KY, USA 05 Aug 2019
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