On Tuesday, November 5, the halls at GRB went dark...more than once.

A power outage happened at the school due to a telephone pole being hit and severely damaged right outside Kwik Fill gas station on 800 West Broadway.

The power went out at the school for the first time during sixth bell, but there were no worries as the generator kicked in and the power came right back on.

When the power went out for the second time during seventh bell, things were different. The power went off and stayed off for about an hour.

This brought out many emotions from everyone at GRB and even from some students who were not in the building.

Junior Crystal Boland said, "I was at BOCES while all this was happening. It was all over everyone's social media. I was mad. It was our first power outage and I wasn't even there."

While Boland was feeling jealous from missing the incident, others who were there felt differently.

Assistant Principal Mr. Murray said, "I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. My main goal was just to make sure communication was being spread to everyone about what the plan was."

Although this was a stressful experience for staff at GRB, the word did get around and everyone knew what they needed to do.

Students were told to stay put in the classroom they were in until told differently and if they needed to go to the bathroom to let an adult know so someone could escort them. This was considered a "shelter-in-place."

It was nice to see students and staff escorting and helping during this time rather than freaking out and having a different approach.

While students were staying put, teachers had to improvise and come up with something for students to do until the power came back on.

Mrs. Fiordimalva said, "Thank God the Chromebooks are battery charged and everyone has flashlights on their phones."

Although the shelter-in-place had teachers stuck with having to find something for their students to do, they got through it.

Due to this and all the other great staff who helped during this time of chaos, Principal Mrs. Parkhurst sent out an e-mail thanking everyone. She saw the bright side of the situation and took it as an opportunity to learn the school needs a new PA system and emergency lighting in order to be prepared for the future.