Darsh Balani

Seniors Jackson Schou (right) and Jack Donahue (left) look at the time, waiting for class to end without the bell.

The bells are up and working after one and a half days of not functioning. 

During these twelve periods of silence, students were left with no indicator of when class ended other than the time on the clocks. “We only knew when the period ended by constantly checking the time or when we could hear Kroemer yell ‘Next period!’ in the hallway,” said senior Marali Sanchez Carmona. 

This event left a question in many students’ minds: what caused the bells to stop ringing? How could the school mess up something as simple as the bell system? Will this culture of malfunction carry into other aspects of PV school life?

“It was actually an issue with the PA system,” stated Lelank Zenk, an employee at the school’s maintenance center. “The bells and PA use the same speakers and the PA was stuck on.  It happened when someone was using the PA over the weekend, so we needed to find the reason for the issue and find a way to reset it without disrupting the IT network. That is why neither the bells nor the PA system worked for those days.”

“I am not surprised that the bells stopped working.” said senior Mitchell Strobbe. “Everything is constantly breaking down here at PV, like the printers and bathrooms”.

The bell malfunctioning brings to light questions about the school’s upkeeping. As PV has expanded with the new buildings and parking lots, many of the utilities in the main building have not been properly maintained, a notable example being the first floor men’s bathrooms. 

“I have witnessed the school wither away at my time here,” explained junior Sri Ganesh. “Some of the soap dispensers and stall doors in the new bathrooms have already broken. It gets kind of awkward when I’m relieving myself on the toilet, and I see through the nonexistent door someone washing their hands without using soap.”

While the bell’s malfunctioning was just an accident caused by usage, it makes a statement on the upkeep and status of facilities and resources at PV.