A note posted Thursday on GJHS teacher Rosemary Jennings’ door, Room 305, states that classes will be conducted in the library.

The 300 Building has been hit with an unexplainable smell, evacuating GJHS classrooms to the library.  

“At least one fourth of classes were evacuated to the library, [Rosemary] Jennings, [Christine] Spillane, [Maura] McDougal, and mine,” said GJHS teacher Lisa Moot, who teaches in Room 303.

Complaints of the smell have been voiced since Tuesday morning. Students could hardly sit in class without complaining of the smell. 

“My students could barely stay in there for the first 5 minutes when I was giving instructions,” said Moot.

The rooms have a putrid smell. The odor is stronger from room to room. Some have described the smell as being reminiscent of sewage or possibly a dead animal. 

Administrators and custodial staff are working on figuring out what the smell is but are not sure when this issue will be fixed.

“It’s not sewage, the plumbers came. There are a couple rooms that have trap doors. They went and looked underneath there. There’s no sewer leakage, there’s no sewer backflow; we know it’s not the heating system vents. There are filters in there that get replaced every year,” said GJHS Assistant Principal Heather O’Brien.

Possible solutions are underway, though.

“We don’t know what it is yet, but the whole maintenance crew is trying to problem solve… janitors have poured enzymes down all of the drains to see if there’s something organically rotting in there. The enzymes would break all of that up. They poured it in once and they’re going to do it again tonight,” said O’Brien.

Some students have complained of headaches and feeling sick due to the stench or lack of fresh air, hence the evacuation of the building for safety and learning effectiveness reasons. 

“The problem is we don’t know when it’s going to be fixed. But we have a plan because it’s giving me a headache, too,” said O’Brien.