Arrest Expected In High School Flooding Damage

By Andrew Gorosko

Police have applied for an arrest warrant for one person in connection with the July 13 flooding incident at Newtown High School, which officials believe may result in more than $100,000 in property damage to the building and its contents.

Police Youth Officer Dana Schubert said on August 15 he had applied earlier that day for the warrant at Danbury Superior Court. A prosecutor will review the application, as will a judge, in determining whether there is sufficient evidence to press charges in the case. If an arrest warrant is approved, it would be served on the person named, after which he or she would be arraigned in court on the charges.

The court would determine what charges are applicable in the case. Criminal mischief is the charge which applies to acts of vandalism.

In an apparent prank on Friday, July 13, someone who had entered the school turned on an emergency shower in a third-level science classroom and left the area, allowing the high-volume shower to continue running. The shower does not have a drain and the rapidly flowing water spread out across the floor, eventually draining down into the second level and into first level of the high school expansion wing. Such emergency showers are intended to quickly and thoroughly cleanse students who are exposed to toxic substances.

The water from the emergency shower drained from the third level to the second level, entering rooms including the second-level lecture hall and two computer classrooms, causing extensive water damage there. As the thousands of gallons of water drained downward through the building from the top floor, the water also came into contact with classrooms, hallways, lighting fixtures, computers, ceilings, walls, rugs, seating, and other objects.

School officials estimate the emergency shower was probably running for about one hour before school staff members discovered the problem. Several unidentified teenagers reportedly were spotted loitering in the high school late that afternoon.

Unfortunately, the area hardest hit by the water damage was a computer room on the second level. About 80 percent of the water damage was on the school’s second level. The third level and first level each received about ten percent of the damage.

As a precaution against future instances of vandalism, the school plans to install sensors on the school’s emergency showers which would sound alarms if the showers were turned on.