10 more Kailua
classes unsafe

Inspectors discover that
the classrooms are in danger
of a ceiling collapse

As many as 10 Kailua Intermediate classrooms have ceilings in danger of caving in -- just like the one that collapsed last week and injured eight students and their teacher.

The school will be closed to students tomorrow after today's scheduled holiday while teachers and administrators coordinate new class assignments for the more than 400 seventh- and eighth-graders who use the 10 affected classrooms in Building C, officials said at a news conference yesterday.

Inspectors say wires that hold up the classrooms' ceiling frameworks are corroded, likely because of a roof leak. Work is scheduled to begin immediately, and it might take two to three weeks to fix the problem. The cost has not been determined, officials said.

Meanwhile, students will be assigned to other classrooms, and some teaching will be done in the school's cafeteria and library, Kailua Intermediate Principal Suzanne Mulcahy said yesterday.

"I'm feeling pretty weary right now," she said. "It will not be easy ... but we're going to make do."

On Friday afternoon, corroded ceiling framework wires in classroom 219-C snapped, and the ceiling collapsed. Eight students and their homeroom teacher, Katie Vaughan, suffered minor injuries. A student received stitches, and one might have broken a rib, Vaughan said.

She said that just before the ceiling fell, there was a loud cracking that "sounded like something was breaking through" the roof. Then the ceiling came down in a wave.

"I was like a deer in the headlights," she said yesterday in a telephone interview. "I put my hands up as if I could stop it."

She said she heard her students screaming for help. Most of the boys were positioned near the door, but several girls in the corner had been pinned underneath debris. Vaughan was also stuck but found a clear space near her desk to get out.

"It was so heavy," she said. "It kind of pushed me down."

Vaughan said she then helped others to escape and accounted for all her students. Later, on the way to Castle Medical Center, she was able to joke with her students about the incident. "You can find humor in any situation," she said.

But if the ceiling had collapsed just one hour later, "it would have been a lot worse," said Vaughan, who teaches eighth-grade earth science. At that point she would have had almost 30 students in the room. And that day, they were scheduled to watch a loud movie on hurricanes in the dark.

Vaughan plans to talk with her homeroom students about the incident on Wednesday, but she is still trying to get over it herself.

"The memory runs through my head quite often," she said, adding that she is worried about how her students will react to their experience.

Mulcahy said counseling services will be made available to students and faculty members affected by the incident. So far, no one has requested counseling.

Vaughan also said she hopes the incident prompts closer inspection of the potential corrosion problem at Kailua Intermediate and other schools, especially those positioned in rainy places.

"Buildings wear out," she said. "Given that this happened, I think probably other schools should be checked."

Mulcahy said Kailua Intermediate ceilings will be checked periodically for problems. The school is 50 years old but was renovated last year.

Acoustic ceiling tiles were replaced, but officials said wiring problems were not detected at that time. Richard Soo of the state Department of Education's Safety and Security Services section said it is still unclear what caused the corrosion problem.