Police Await Official Damage Estimates In NHS Flooding Case

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Youth Officer Dana Schubert said Thursday he is awaiting a final cost estimate from school officials on the extent of damage caused by a recent flooding incident at Newtown High School, before submitting an arrest warrant application to the court for one unidentified youth.

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.

In tallying the damage, school officials believe that costs to correct water-related problems may reach $140,000.

Officer Schubert said, “I am awaiting some official damage estimates so we can include that in our reports” to Danbury Superior Court. Court prosecutors review such arrest warrant applications, after which they are submitted to a judge for review. First-degree criminal mischief, a felony, is the charge that applies to vandalism with damage exceeding $1,500.

The school has damage insurance to cover water-related losses. In some criminal mischief cases, prosecutors seek to have defendants convicted of the crime make monetary restitution for property damage.

The water from the emergency shower drained from the third level to the second level, entering 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 came into contact with classrooms, hallways, lighting fixtures, computers, ceilings, walls, rugs, seating, and other objects.

School officials estimate that 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. School workers had been waiting until damaged computers were thoroughly dry to restart them to learn the full extent of the water damage.

About 80 percent of the water damage was on the school’s second level. The third level and first level each received about 10 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.