TRANSFORMER EXPLODES, MANY HANNA STUDENTS GO HOME

By Juan Montoya
Many Hanna High students chose to go home after Brownsville Independent School District administrators decided to prevent their coming into contact with potentially toxic PCBs-laced smoke after an electric transformer exploded outside the school this morning.
Reports indicate that students were told by teachers that the high school administration was saying that a bird had flown into the PUB substation next to the school, by the band area, and caused the explosion.
Students inside the school emailed and texted parents form cell phones saying they had been sent to the auditorium and cafeteria and away from the lingering smoke emanating from the smoking transformer.
"We're all in the auditorium and I think we're going to be sent home," said one who texted El Rrun-Run.
The student went on to say that many students were unable to attend their morning classes and were kept together in the auditorium or cafeteria all morning. He also said that when the transformer exploded, not only did the lights go off, but the air conditioning system also stopped, making breathing in the smoky air unbearable.
"The outage also triggered off the fire alarm and that didn't stop for about an hour," he said. "You can imagine sitting in a room with the alarm going off for a full hour. It wasn't a fun morning."
Lights in the high school were powered by back-up generators, he said.
 As of  11:30 this morning, the district had not issued  a public statement on the incident. The students said there had been no injuries reported to the student body by teachers of Hanna administrators. The accident occurred early this morning outside the band area.
Around noon, a security guard by the fenced students pick-up area parents were usually not allowed in the gate but said he was making exceptions due to the outage.
"We had a small outage but classes are going on as usual," the guard said.
Small groups of students were seen leaving the campus.