For many high school students, power outages are a mixed bag. While they can foster team-bonding on sports teams and, in woodworking, promote enjoyable competitions with hand-saws, they can also cause discomfort and disrupt learning environments.

On Thursday, September 5, 2024, at approximately 11:25 a.m., according to a timeline sent by executive director Craig Smith, Community School of Davidson (CSD) experienced a power outage. 11:25 a.m., for an average CSD day, is close to the end of fourth period and the beginning of lunch.

The outage took everyone by surprise. Students were packing up books and laptops, walking in the hallways, or eating when, all of a sudden, the blackout occurred. CSD did not send the students home when it happened. Rather, after the fifth period, at 12:45 p.m., dismissal began at the upper school. The CSD admin notified the teachers, as well as the students, to leave for safety purposes. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the surprise, it took more than an hour for admin to reach and announce their decision.

Unlike a fire drill, where alarms and procedures are in place, power outages present a different challenge.

When asked whether power outages impact learning, Harper Kane (‘27) said, “I think they do, because they stop you from learning. Nobody wants to be in the school in the dark.”

While power outages can appear innocuous, they are a hazard. When students can neither see, nor operate their devices, and systems such as HVAC and lighting are not working, the circumstances are more conducive to unrest than learning.

In an email sent shortly after the decision via StudentSquare (a tool teachers and administrators use to communicate with students), upper school administrators said, “Our building will remain open for students until our normal dismissal and all buses will run on their usual schedule.”

Admin also wrote, “Families are welcome to pick up their upper school students anytime after 12:45.”

This announcement seemed to add to the confusion. Students who drove their cars to CSD were less affected. They simply left the school and drove home. Many students without vehicles had parents who could quickly adapt to the unexpected schedule change and pick them up within a half an hour.

However, there was still a size of a population of students stuck in limbo. Through the Parent Square notice Upper School administrators made sure to account for almost all of the remaining students.

The volleyball players, in particular, still had it difficult. While students left in droves, players had to stay in the dark school, waiting for the bus to take them to a match, and the players felt disrupted.

Harper Kane (‘27), when asked whether the outage disrupted volleyball, said, “I think it did, because we were all just sitting around, didn’t warm up, didn’t know what we were supposed to be doing.”

That early season power outage seemed to set the tone for what was to follow.

For Western North Carolina residents, and many within a two hour drive of CSD, it’s hard to forget hurricane Helene, which was at its worst from September 24, 2025, to September 27, 2025.

Cary Mock, in an article for The Conversation titled “How Hurricane Helene became a deadly disaster across six states,” said, “Its near-record-breaking size, storm surge, winds and rainfall together turned Helene into an almost unimaginable disaster.”

Helene caused devastation and property destruction.

“More than 230 people died across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia as Helene flooded towns, destroyed roads and bridges and swept away homes,” the article said.

Many people wonder why Asheville, North Carolina, was hit so hard by Helene.

“Asheville, North Carolina… is located in a bowl in mountainous terrain. That left it and other nearby cities highly susceptible to high river runoff and extreme flooding,” the article said.

While CSD was spared the brunt of the storm, school administrators were still ready to make split-second decisions.

Fast forward to January 10, 2025, when snow started falling. There was no power outage, but CSD dismissed two hours early. Student drivers were instructed to drive carefully and, in particular, avoid skidding on ice. As with the power outage and volleyball situation that took place months earlier, some families were able to react quickly, but many students felt disoriented.

When unexpected situations occur, is there a way to satisfy everyone?

CSD power outage procedures

When the power goes out at Community School of Davidson (CSD), a variety of staff and administrators begin making decisions.

Since teachers are generally in their classrooms with students, they are trying to act first. In general, teachers, when dealing with power outages, have to make sure that the classrooms do not erupt into chaos, sometimes hand students material for remote learning, and ensure that students do not leave before they are allowed. They often pass information about the power outage from the administrators to the students, or point the students in the right direction.

In terms of student reactions, the response to crises and blackout situations is common to most high schools. Students flinch at the loss of light, some cheer and people amass in the hallways. The halls become crowded, full of interposing voices and phone calls, and students, once given permission, rush to the doors.

While there is no major increase in local blackouts that disrupt CSD’s schedule, incidents of power outages are rich in the memory of CSD high school students.

Harper Kane still recalls the uneasiness she experienced from the September 5, 2024 power outage, as well as the excitement of school being dismissed.

Kane said, “I felt happy, for one, because school was cancelled… but a little nervous, like where are my parents and will I get picked up on-time, especially since I had sports afterwards.”

Power outages, as it turns out, are also rich in the memory of certain CSD teachers. Sara Behnke, English 3 and 4 teacher, recalls a power outage fiasco from years ago.

“When I taught English II at CSD, we had a power outage during the EOC because a squirrel chewed into one of the transformers at the front of the school,” Behnke said.

The problem was neither immediate in revealing itself nor High on the list of possibilities for diagnosis and repair.

“I was in a classroom full of students taking the exam when someone raised their hand and showed me a spinning wheel on their screen. Then another hand went up. Then another, and another,” Behnke said. “In a few seconds, everyone had raised their hand to say their test had stopped responding.

“Soon after, I found out that the transformer was blown and we wouldn’t get power back for another couple of hours,” Behnke said.

To the students’ delight, thanks to a destructive squirrel, the test came to an end.

“Some students were actually finished with the test and just hadn’t pressed submit yet, so they had to wait just to submit their tests,” Behnke said.

Do power outages have benefits?

CSD’s woodshop teacher, Bobby Hardin, has a more favorable perception of power outages.

“I do a lot of work outside, I lived on a farm for a while, I had my own animals, [and] had to build my own things… There were areas… I might be building in that I could not get power to. In those cases, either I had to have a battery back-up, or… hand tools,” Bobby Hardin said.

So he designed his class with a little bit of foresight and crisis management included. It is not surprising that, as a woodshop teacher, he would have a certain fondness for the skill involved in using hand tools.

“There’s a whole different skill involved in using hand tools to build something. It takes a lot longer, and there’s more skill involved when you only have your arm power, rather than the power from the electric motor,” Hardin said.

Hardin’s activity for when the power was out is popular with his woodshop students.

“One time in the woodshop, the power went out. We were still at school – they hadn’t called off school yet – so we had to come up with something to do. The power was on in parts of the school, but not in others,” Hardin said.

“What we ended up doing was… a competition on who could saw the board in half the fastest with a handsaw. The kids asked if they could do it again the next day,” Hardin said.

Storytelling is a learning opportunity during power outages

Both in and out of school, a frequent strategy during power outages is to tell stories. In school, English teachers seem to grab the spotlight and, out of school, while serious, perhaps there are no better storytellers than comedy writers.

That’s what “Family Guy” (1999) represented in their famous “Star Wars” parody episodes. The power would go out, and then Peter, the dad, would, to pass the time, tell the stories of the original “Star Wars” trilogy. The cast of “Family Guy” characters functioned as comical representations of the original “Star Wars” characters.

These episodes were both a humorous reenactment and a spoof, which they later released as a trilogy and special DVD set. In one scene, the main characters were in a ship, dodging all these dangerous floating objects while their enemies, following behind, hit them and spiraled without fail. One of the central characters asked what prevented their ship from going down, and the other character, to paraphrase, said, “Too many main characters are aboard.”

As different as they seem, sometimes high schools and comedy episode plots go hand-in-hand. For Hardin, storytelling when the power goes out has long been a family ritual.

“Any time the power goes out in our house, we always have oil lamps. Instead of candles…, we use oil lamps. My parents used them when I was a little kid. We usually light oil lamps, and it’s a great time for us,” Hardin said.

Concerning what Hardin and his family does in the oil lamp setting, “We play games, talk, and that’s advantageous as far as family goes,” Hardin said. “It brings us closer together. And, we usually tell stories about times past when we’ve had power outages, and what we did.”

Power outages can bring about raw storytelling. That is, when the power is out and people are telling stories, it’s usually with their voice, in a stripped back setting.

Once again, high school and television writing overlap.

Take the episode “Cicely” from the “Twin Peaks”-esque medical drama, “Northern Exposure” (1990), in which an old man, in a modest room, tells the story of the town’s founding. While the episode does not feature a power outage, the mechanic–a person relating a tale to a group of people who are rapt–is similar. This episode aired in the ‘90s, but perhaps if it was made today, there would be one inattentive character staring into their phone for comedic relief.

As for how power outages impact learning, they can put a wrench in plans to submit tests that are done electronically.

Being in nature, away from power

While Hardin does not deny the challenges of power outages in a school setting, he extols the benefits of power outages in general.

“Another thing I really appreciate about when the power goes out is it usually forces us to go to bed earlier. There’s something to, when the sun goes down, going to bed shortly thereafter,” Hardin said.

Hardin appreciates camping for similar reasons. It involves sunrises, sunsets and the diurnal (day and night) cycle.

“I enjoy that about camping, too. You’re up with the sun, and when the sun goes down, you’re asleep,” Hardin said.

That is not the only reason Hardin appreciates camping. He equates being in nature, away from power, to quality learning.

“I did a lot of camping and hiking. In those cases, you are away from power, and I relished the thought of not having power, because then you’re forced to cook over a fire, which means you have to know how to build a fire,” Hardin said.

Aside from the logistical aspects, Hardin finds that being away from technology helps one pay more attention to the natural beauty around them.

“Without electricity, there’s a lot more knowledge… you need to have to do certain things. There’s also some freedom in that, because you’re allowed to take in the wilderness and any outdoors experience for what [it really is],” Hardin said.

To Hardin, when the power goes out, the energy requirements shift from the technology to the individual.

“Most of the time, when you don’t have electricity, you’re expending more manpower. Instead of conserving [energy], I would say I’m putting it in a different place,” Hardin said.

A point of agreement

Hardin believes the common theory that ‘exercise’ in the modern sense is often a compensation for the lack of movement in regular, twenty-first century life.

“We do so many things with electricity that we don’t have to work for… Take washing your clothes, for instance. In a way, who needed to go to the gym back when you had to do everything by hand?” Hardin said.

Hardin may be onto something. According to an article titled “A Brief History of Washing Machines” from ThoughtCo., “In many ancient cultures, people cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with abrasive sands and then washing the dirt away in streams or rivers.”

How many people today would require a fitness center for iPhone calibrated and supervised physical activity if just doing their laundry involved manual pounding, rubbing and washing?

The reality is that most people around the Davidson area, and CSD as a school of nearly 1,300, do not have to deal with power outages that last longer than a day. And, if a power outage lasted for a week or longer, few people would be eager to take out sticks and stones, and use them as washing machine substitutes.

More common, in power outages, than adopting ancient laundry practices is the practice of entertaining oneself. Or, in the case of Kane’s volleyball team, entertaining each other.

“[The September 5, 2024 power outage] was also important for team bonding, because we sat, did each other’s hair, and talked,” Kane said.

And while the power outage that disrupted the EOC, as Behnke recounted, was stressful, there was, at least, a silver lining.

“We paused the test, and admin ordered pizzas for all the students to eat while we waited for the power to come back on,” Behnke said. “There was laughter and tears, but we got through it, and surprisingly, the scores were really good!”

The stories that CSD woodshop teacher, Hardin, volleyball player, Kane, and English teacher, Behnke, each share illustrate that In the midst of confusion and chaos and uncertainty, there is also opportunity. With safety being a priority, there is opportunity for learning differently, yet learning nevertheless.

But, while Hardin, Kane, and Behnke have different perspectives and experiences with power outages, perhaps there is something they have in common.

Everyone loves a good snow day.