It was a regular Monday on March 23rd for the engineering department, but an exciting one as well; it was the scheduled weather balloon launch. Students gathered around and watched in awe as it took flight. However, in a flabbergasting turn of events for the Engineering Department of CHS, students and teachers had to watch as the balloon they often used to test weather was shot down by a missile. Now I’m no expert on weather balloons, but I’m pretty sure they’re not meant to violently explode.
Afterwards, students were confused to hear news about a repeat of the Chinese spy balloon incident from around 3 years ago, with many thinking that it was just a coincidence that the launch of their balloon was on the same day; however, after the events of that day, I don’t think that’s the opinion anymore. Turns out, within the first couple of seconds of the balloons being in the air, the military had detected the balloon, thought it was another spy balloon, and then BOOM. A couple of minutes after the bursting of the balloon, the official U.S. government Twitter page said that the spy balloon was shot down and an investigation would be conducted.
Many engineering students have hidden in the engineering wing to avoid potential arrest. While there were no signs of any military officials, many of them were so fear-stricken that they moved into the engineering wing permanently and turned it into something that resembles a homeless shelter. In an attempt to get some answers about the life of the kids in the bunker, I went around the engineering wing and interviewed a couple of residents.
The first student I interviewed was trying to say something about the infrastructure of the new building but was repeatedly drowned out by the sound of around 15 jackhammers digging an escape tunnel in the woodshop. Another student ended up laughing so hard at something on Instagram that it was hard to hear what he was saying, but with the amount of info I got from him, it sounds like the engineering wing will stay like this for the next couple of weeks. The last student I tried to interview was so shocked by the situation that they returned to primal instincts and tried to bite the end of my phone off while I was reading questions to them, so after that, I quit.
It’s uncertain what the next couple of weeks will be like here at Centaurus, as the drama of classes not being able to be held and the collapse of the engineering wing cause more chaos throughout the school. It seems like things might only get worse as the U.S. military approaches the school. Updates will be given on our Youtube channel, but a summary of the current situation can be found here.
