Bowie High School dealing with a major water line break, again

A steady flow of students walked away from Bowie High School Monday morning. The exit was because of the steady flow of water coming out of this 4-inch pipe.

"I don’t feel safe there. Bowie is pretty much a zoo, and they let the cage open, and all the animals are out to fight," said a Bowie who left the campus with two friends.

Videos of bathrooms, without running water, were posted online by several students. "You just hear the water dripping but there’s no sign of where it’s coming from," said Bazil Matthews.

Water to the main academic building was cut off. After digging up the line it was determined that a pipe seal failed. School officials spent the morning trying to determine if the section of pipe was weekend by the February winter storm.

"We are still investigating that we are still looking at the water pressure situation and we need to evaluate this pipe once we pull it out of the ground and get it replaced. Is this a matter of this could just be old? We don’t know for sure right now we really can’t answer that question," said AISD Maintenance Director Louis Zachary.

"We have had many chances to fix this I feel like during the winter storm and it actually happened there was a chance to fix it and I guess they just didn’t," said Hailey Hollen.

Students who had parental permission were the only ones allowed to leave campus. Throughout the morning a long line of cars pulled into the drop-off and pick-up lane.

"Did you get a phone call? No, he just texted me, it was like; hey, the water leaks can you come to get me and I was like yeah," said Rosemary Greenwald who picked up her brother.

Missing a day in school did not bother Sam Greenwald. "Generally, when this many people are leaving they won’t do much in the class so I’m not too worried," said the Bowie freshman.

A similar situation at Bowie High School happened twice last week. 

Those breaks were on the same piping system but involved cracked joints. 17 porta potties and six handwashing stations were brought in last week. 

That same strategy will be used again but students who spoke to FOX 7 said they were not excited about that option. "I'm not gonna do that no that’s just yuck that’s crazy they want us to use Porta potty‘s," said Sophia Aguilar.

Aisley Bennett was also not happy with the temporary solution.

"So they’re going to be very disgusting," said Bennett.

For Tyler Williams, the school plan would mean an exit plan.

"I just walked … I just walk to my friend's house to go," said Williams.

School officials say about 50 toilets are still functioning in the athletic building. That would help prevent the school from being closed down "So there is some flexibility there," said Zachary.

The water pipes inside the academic buildings are believed to be sound. The patch job was completed late Monday afternoon. The lines were pressured tested And the water was turned back on. Later that afternoon  

AISD officials announced the school would resume as scheduled on Tuesday.

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