A simple mistake in a high school science lab led to catastrophic damage to the Mukwonago Area School District's network servers, forcing all Mukwonago schools to cancel classes Friday.
Water from a sink left running for about an hour flooded into the basement where the network servers for all school buildings are housed. The damage affected critical systems including phones, email, HVAC and security across the district.
"He left the sink on because he had to go to a meeting and forgot to turn it off," said Jace Tojek, a 5th grade student on what he was told of the flood from his school.
TMJ4 News reached out to school district officials to learn more about what happened.
The flooding's impact was immediately felt by students like Jace's sister, Shayna Tojek, a 3rd grader.
"Yesterday, we had to play bingo instead of our fun I-XL games," Shayna said.
For many families, the closure meant scrambling to find childcare solutions. We spoke with several parents at a local park where children were playing instead of attending school.
"I would rather they were in school because they had Monday off, but it is better safety-wise for the security of the schools, it is better to have all those options," Brittney Pias, a Mukwonago mom.
According to district officials, IT staff have been working around the clock to restore the damaged servers and get systems back online. The school district believes they will have enough systems repaired by Monday for classes to resume as scheduled. Which would be a relief to parents who had to scramble to figure out childcare.
"I need school back," Pias said.
Just over a week remains of the school year. It ends June 11.
This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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