On the morning of Monday, April 28, it was announced on the loudspeaker that the Internet was experiencing issues and would be out for the school day. Attendance shifted to manual procedures, and teachers had to improvise and make adjustments to their lesson plans. Many online platforms like Advanced Placement (AP) Classroom, Google Classroom, and online textbooks became unavailable. For many, the lack of WiFi that day was frustrating, especially in light of upcoming AP exams the following week.
On the day of the outage, many teachers had to shift their computer-based plans, including the AP World History classes. “[The classes] had the online MCQ thing, so that set us back a little bit. I had some backups, but it was a huge diversion,” explained Mr. Einfeldt, an AP World History Teacher. “I’d like it to be online. That’d be a whole lot easier, but I’m not going to sit here and complain about it.”
The outage was caused by damage to the fiber optic cable on a pole near FUSD’s Internet Service Provider’s hub. A fiber optic cable consists of optical fibers bundled into a cable, which transmits information as pulses of light. This is used to provide internet to long distances, such as the entirety of FUSD. District response included identifying the location of the damaged area. Barth Paine, the district public information officer, explains: “[Staff and fiber optic cable vendor technicians] worked into the night to splice the cable back together so the network was working for the next school day. We thank them for their rapid response.” The fiber optic provider uses standard industry precautions to protect the cable, which include protective sleeving and secure mounting methods. According to Mr. Paine, “The district is still trying to determine exactly what caused the damage. Based on this information, a decision can be made on how to best prevent such issues in the future.
“I’m constantly responding to emails and working on the budget, so the outage really made us realize how much we rely on the Internet,” Mr. Hicks reflected. The unexpected disruption served as a reminder of how important WiFi has been in the daily functioning of schools, from administrative tasks to lesson plans. The issue also highlighted the value of flexibility in managing unexpected circumstances.
