Students going back to class in Dawson City after frozen sewer line fixed
CBC
Students will be back in class on Wednesday morning at Robert Service School in Dawson City.
The school has been closed since last week after a couple of water main breaks coated parts of the town in ice, flooded some buildings, and froze pipes in –40 C weather. It also prompted a boil water advisory for the town that's still in place.
Jan Olson, supertintendant of schools with Yukon's education department, said closing Robert Service School these past few days was a safety decision, because of frozen sewer lines.
"We deemed, without being able to flush toilets and things like that, that it wouldn't be safe for students to occupy the school," he said on Tuesday afternoon, not long before the decision was made to reopen.
In a letter to parents on Tuesday afternoon, school officials said frozen sewer lines have been fixed and the school's plumbing is now "working well."
The school's nutrition program will also resume on Wednesday, with daily breakfast and lunch for students.
The town is still under a boil water advisory, so students are being asked to bring their own bottles of safe drinking water.
Amélie Morin, whose son is in Grade 5 at Robert Service School, said it was a "celebration" for her son to find out he'd be going back to class on Wednesday. She said the closure was tough for him.
"My son loves going to school. It's a really happy and positive space for him. And he very much misses his peers," Morin said.
"But I think there's also the anxiety and the worry that like, maybe it'll happen again given that, you know, we've gone through school closures now twice in the last couple months."
Last month, before the holiday break, the school was also unexpectedly closed for several days after a leak was discovered in a propane tank just outside the building.
"It is a bit of a rollercoaster, I would say, for a family managing the emotions that ... come from these last-minute unexpected closures," Morin said.
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