‘Rancid’ smelling sewage temporarily displaces art classes

PHOTO: The art room center sink backed up with sewage on Oct. 7, displacing art classes due to the “rancid” smell. (Courtesy Photo/Stella Maze)

By Mattias RowenBale,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

When art students walked into class on the morning of Oct. 7, they were greeted by, as sophomore Kathlyn Whitehead put it, “a square foot hole in the floor filled to the brim with sewage.”

“It smelled absolutely rancid,” Whitehead said.

“It’s an art room, so we do lots of cleaning up, and the sinks get backed up from time to time with just accumulated junk,” art teacher Kyle Monhollan said.

Monhollan realized earlier in the week that his sink wasn’t draining properly and asked for a plumber to come in.

“I arrived (the morning of Oct. 7) and the plumber was working, but they had to dig up all the gunk in the floor underneath, and that’s making a terrible smell,” Monhollan said.

While Whitehead’s second period got the brunt of the scent, it lingered in the classroom throughout the day.

“When we got to (fourth period) art we could smell this like weird … sulfur-y smell,” senior Olivia Gonzalez said.

In the face of the unexpected displacement Monhollan chose to make “lemonade out of the lemons,” and had his classes “take advantage of nice weather and draw outside.”