On the afternoon of Dec. 3, students, teachers and staff from J. Fithian Tatem Elementary School received an unexpected half-day off.
Thanks to a gas leak that was discovered late in the morning, the entire school was evacuated, and all Tatem students were subsequently relocated to nearby Christ the King Regional Catholic School for parental pick-up.
“There was construction work going on, and one of the contractors hit a gas line that was either unmarked or not marked well. It was in the outside rear of the building, an ancillary gas line that feeds their emergency generator,” said Haddonfield Police Chief Jason Cutler.
“Valerie (principal Cline) quickly evacuated the school which was phenomenal. Their staff and her teachers did a great job. The kids were evacuated while PSE&G was called in and shut off the line.”
According to Cutler, the department was first notified of the leak at 11:42 a.m., and the task of safely relocating everyone commenced a short time later.
“The evacuation went very smoothly, better than I expected. All the kids are safe and accounted for. They were extremely happy that they were missing the rest of the day. I heard there was a loud cheer amongst the kids when it was announced they wouldn’t be going back to school for the rest of the day,” Cutler stated.
Haddonfield School District Superintendent Larry Mussoline told the Sun he made the call to shut down the school “out of an abundance of caution,” and also called for Tatem to be open for business the following day.
“If we knew this was an ancillary line and could be isolated and shut off, we wouldn’t have moved everyone. Principal Cline and her staff were superb,” Mussoline added.
According to Mussoline, since the line that was struck was not connected to a main, it can be shut off while being repaired. Work had already commenced by the afternoon of the evacuation.
Cutler also shed light on why Tatem students were moved off-site.
“The school district’s emergency plans for each school all have written in them an alternate evacuation site, and Tatem’s first alternate evacuation site is Christ the King Regional School. They were happy to help and we couldn’t be happier with them,” he said.
Cline crafted a memo, which was sent to all Tatem parents, regarding her own response to the situation and outlining steps for future emergency response techniques.
