Wilbram, Massachusetts (WGGB/WSHM) – A local high school has gained national attention after being featured in the Weekend Update during last weekend’s Saturday Night Live. why? Because the lights at Minneshog High School won’t go out.
In fact, the lights have been on continuously for over a year, and school officials say the solution isn’t as simple as it seems. All of this led to jokes on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.
Outside Minneshog High School on Monday night, the lights could still be seen on, but a solution is said to be in the works.
Wilbraham School Superintendent John Provost said:
He briefed Western Mass News on the ongoing situation at Minneshog High School. You can’t turn off the lights in the school. This costs taxpayers thousands of dollars each month, and even the comedy show Saturday Night Live has caught the attention of the national press.
Last weekend, comedian Colin Jost joked about the issue in his Weekend Update segment, saying, “The students are fine, but the hamster in the classroom has gone nuts.”
“We regret that our failure to resolve the issue more quickly has brought this kind of notoriety to our district and community,” Provost said. “However, we appreciate the news media’s attention to this.
He said occupancy of the building was approved in 2012, including the server that controls the lighting. In 2021 it was destroyed by malicious malware.
“The school district has been working on the issue since day one and was very willing to involve vendors in the expedited repair process,” explained Provost. We were only able to source parts from one supplier that was affected by the problem, and we really had limited options for how to solve it otherwise.”
He said a repair is scheduled for next month and will come with a feature to prevent this from happening again.
“One of the requirements we had for the solution was to manually override it, so we can prevent this problem in the future,” says Provost.
I was told that repairs would be done during the February break.
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