Due to bad weather starting on Wednesday, electrical classes face schedule setbacks to avoid electrocution as storms continue.
“When there’s thunder there’s lightning, and when there’s lightning, there’s a chance to die on the job,” sophomore Enrique Flores said. “Even though we’re inside, our teacher wants to instill these habits into us so we don’t work whenever there’s risk to our lives.”
Wednesday saw a high of 40% precipitation and thunderstorms according to Google Weather. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch across south central Texas for this evening and storming is expected to continue.
“The biggest challenge has been keeping up with our assignments,” Flores said. “There’s always a next wiring assignment that we have to do, another job to get done, another test or certification we have to finish, so taking a day away is rough because there’s so much to keep up with.”
Electrical students work through a mix of classroom learning and on-the-job field practice where they create functioning electrical apparatuses, the latter being inhibited by the weather.
“Storming or not, we spend the entire class period learning,” sophomore Parker Knight said. “Although one of the times it rained was during an important wiring job and we basically had to skip an entire week because of it, [affecting our midterms].”
Teachers use Pearson to assign catered materials to their trade classes that allows students to acquire certifications.
“I’ve learned how to not fry myself,” sophomore Brandon Bohls said. “The weather has given us extra time to work on Pearson and focus on our safety training.”
At 16 years old, students can get their partnership license, allowing them to begin hands-on work under the supervision of a master electrician and start getting their 8,000 required in-the-field hours to become a journeyman electrician.
“It sucks that we’ve been unable to wire at all,” sophomore Sebastian Rios said. “We have learned a lot though, I do wish we could wire more but it’s good to learn about what you should and shouldn’t do.”
To make up for lost days, electrical classes will have to compress more work into a shorter period of time as the school year approaches its finish.
“Electrical is a really fun class and I think more people should take it,” Rios said. “With AI taking all the computer jobs, the trades are becoming really important, and electrical is one of the better ones.”
