Last week, Greeley West High School was strung along from one unusual event to the next. With some oddities more major than others, the school has had quite the week to keep the students and staff busy and on their toes.

Last Saturday at the Sweetheart Blast Cheer Competition held at the building, a rusted pipe broke in the men’s bathroom above the gymnasium. Water began flooding into the gym as the different schools’ cheer teams were competing. Greeley West cheerleaders took action to mop up the water pouring into the gym while teams were being awarded. A cheerleader at Greeley West, Allison Rath, explained, “We noticed water coming down from the top of the stairs so I ran upstairs to see where it was coming from. Cheerleaders and parents were mopping the water trying to keep it from getting to everyone in the gym.”

Two days later, an event took place that was not limited to only Greeley West. On social media through the hashtag, #BroomstickChallenge, posts appear of people’s attempts to balance their broomsticks on the bristles. The challenge was claimed to be successful due to the earth’s gravitational pull. It was rumored that Monday was the only day this would work. Although this was proven wrong, and people can still put their brooms up each day afterward, it is evident that even Spartans fell for the antic and were surprised by it, creating another odd event to add to this week.

Tuesday morning, right as the bell was about to ring to begin the day, West had a school-wide power outage. The emergency lights kicked right on, the hallways lit, and a fraction of classrooms as well. Students sat in the dark for about 35 minutes, simply idling and waiting to see if the lights would come back on. Teachers and staff discovered the problem was internal. Unrelated to the flooding in the gymnasium, the power outage stemmed from a water problem as well. Greeley West principal, Mr. Jeff Cranson explained, “My understanding is there was a water pump that stopped working and it somehow blew a fuse and messed up the power.”

Also on Tuesday, the student parking lot was a disaster. Students were boxed in with no ability to exit. The weather in Greeley has called for quite a bit of snow lately. Although the snow covered lines in the parking lot may have added to the confusion, Tuesday was worse than most. Students were driving in the wrong lanes to get unstuck, which made for more problems and all but an easy process of going off campus for lunch.

Throughout the entirety of the week, there were other anomalies such as many teachers being out of school, with a larger number of substitutes in the building. There were more teachers out than substitute teachers to fill, so many teachers had to step in other classes during their off periods. On top of this, the school grading website, Infinite Campus, was having problems. Teachers struggled to put grades in for students to check.

Some could blame these events on the full moon, others would say the alignment was just some wild coincidence. Regardless, one on top of the other was out of the ordinary at Greeley West High School and made for a busier week than usual.