A contractor cutting a power line by accident left more than 900 Kansas City Power and Light customers in the dark Friday, March 25, including Shawnee Mission South.

At a little after 10 a.m. a line near 103rd Street was cut and the lights at South went out. The administrators quickly put together an altered schedule where students ate with their fourth hour and fifth – seventh hours were shortened to fit the early release.

“I’m glad it happened,” freshmen Jared Harrington said.

Many students like Harrington hoped to get sent home early, but KCPL got the power back on in about 45 minutes.

The outage which occurred south of 99th Street, interrupted most classroom functions, but English teacher Tim Williams continued teaching.

“I have a window so I just kept reading Night,” Williams said.

The administrators handled the situation by communicating with KCPL, the district, the bus company, and SMSD Food Services. Principal Todd Dain also sent an email to parents filling them in on the situation.

However, freshmen Valentina Mercado felt the situation inside the school could have been handled better.

“I’m annoyed that students can’t shut up when there are announcements and the schedule is going to be messed up,” Mercado said.

The excitement ended around 10:50 a.m. when KCPL got the power back on and students, hoping to go home, went back to class to finish the day.