A gnawed fibre cable was all it took to shut Hillmorton High School for two days in late June, exposing just how dependent schools have become on digital systems for everyday operations.
The damage, caused by rats beneath the Christchurch school site, cut access to the school’s internet and wired network, along with internal phone lines, CCTV, and the student management system used for rolls, timetables and emergency contact details.
With about 1,500 students on site, principal Sam Ainsworth said the decision to close the school was driven by safety concerns rather than convenience.
“When you’ve got nearly 1,500 students, it’s just a danger if we went into an emergency situation, not being able to make contact with parents and being able to make contact with staff across the school,” he said.
Not everyone was sympathetic. Parents vented on community social media, with many labelling the closure “ridiculous.” Questions flew: couldn’t teachers take the roll the old-fashioned way? Couldn’t lessons happen without the internet?
Others pointed out the real stakes. Without CCTV or a functioning alarm system, a fire or other emergency could have had serious consequences. By Tuesday evening, a temporary workaround had been installed, and students returned to school the next morning.
Longer-term repairs are still to come, and the school has reviewed how a critical cable was left exposed to rodent damage in the first place. Schools now rely on cloud-based systems for administration, communication and teaching. Something as ordinary as a rat has exposed how dependent education has become on a single piece of digital infrastructure.
