Imagine running in the gym and tripping over a giant bump that mysteriously appeared after a random flooding. During the school week, Emerson Junior Senior High School had a few leaks and some flooding after a large storm. When students went to the gym in the following days, they were shocked to find cones and caution tape surrounding the floor. It progressively got worse as days went on and the miniature bumps grew to be almost a foot tall. Both physical education classes and sports teams struggled to cope with the changes and conflicts with the gymnasium. 

“The gym was deemed unsafe due to the warping of the floors so on rainy days, we have been trying to come up with good ideas like playing volleyball in the back or bringing children to the weight room,” said Mr. Mansfield, the physical education teacher. 

Not only does the gym floor interfere with gym class activities, but it also interferes with spring sports when there is bad weather. Typically, when it is raining out, the baseball and softball teams practice inside the front and back gym since the field is flooded. However, with the warped gym floor, it makes it impossible to practice on rainy days.  

“We could get hurt that way and we don’t want to sprain or roll an ankle,” said Emerson Baseball senior Anthony Sturm.

“If it’s raining and we have to practice inside, we can’t do that because there is nowhere for us to go and that’s a big problem,” said Emerson Softball senior Joya Mattera.

Now, there are many developments with fixing the gym floor and making it safe for future students. This year’s Seniors may not be able to go in there again before they graduate, but custodians and other workers are making sure that the incident is addressed. 

“They’re ripping up the floor and it’s going to take 4-6 weeks for them to put a new floor in,” said Sturm. 

Meanwhile, students are anxious to get back into the school gymnasium. They will just have to wait until after the new floor is installed. 

“All we know is that we can’t go on it but I want to go on it,” said Mattera.