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skiingdiver t1_j5t4vdv wrote

Reply to comment by andre3kthegiant in My high school in Wilbraham, MA, got the 'Saturday Night Live' treatment due to lighting issue. The school has a server to control the lights with no manual override. The server got hacked and the school hasn't been able to turn off lights since 2021. Still not fixed. by The_Sloth_Racer

iirc the original company who installed it is gone, the company they bought the lights from is also gone, and the replacement parts are on back order or something from china. you’d think there’s a breaker or something to turn off the lights, or maybe the power company could shut it off?

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The_Sloth_Racer OP t1_j5tg5u2 wrote

The school tried to save money when building the school in 2012 and that apparently didn't include a manual override or shut-off feature. If they shut off all power, kids couldn't go to school so that's not an option.

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SidewaysFancyPrance t1_j5u35jv wrote

At some point this gets super unsafe, if they can't perform maintenance or replace parts/bulbs (or if they do it anyway on live lines). After a year, some higher authority needs to step in and resolve this ASAP, replacing the system if they have to.

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The_Sloth_Racer OP t1_j5zppit wrote

This has been going on for almost 2 years and somehow they kept it hidden from town residents until it was on SNL. Thousands of dollars a month wasted on electricity for 2 years.

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skiingdiver t1_j5uf97t wrote

thanks for the clarification. knew it was some wacky cost-cutting measures

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andre3kthegiant t1_j5t7jsv wrote

Or unplug the server.

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The_Sloth_Racer OP t1_j5tg7ym wrote

They claim they tried that and found if they did that it would disable all lights and there's no backup way to turn them on.

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wobwobwob42 t1_j5tr8uz wrote

The emergency default setting for the lights if you turn everything off, ironically is to keep the lights on.

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