While the student body was either picking potatoes or sleeping in, teachers were setting up for school to reconvene after harvest. On Tuesday, October 10 at three p.m., one teacher in particular, chemistry and algebra teacher Katalin Grooms, was in her classroom, dying goggles for students with boiling water.

“The bottom of the beaker cracked, and when it cracked all the water went out the bottom crack and onto my arm and onto my belly,” Grooms said.

Grooms had checked the beaker for cracks but sometimes glass gets weak and fragile when heated. The burns ended up being second degree. Immediately after the accident, Grooms ran cold water over her burns and then tried cleaning up the mess with paper towels.

“Then I called Mr. Greenlaw to say that I wasn’t going to be able to come to Open House that night because I had just burned myself and I was going home,” Grooms said, “He came right down and told me I was not going home.”

She was encouraged by both Greenlaw and nurse Deb Raymond in the Health Office to go to the emergency room. Although hesitant, Grooms agreed. In the emergency room she got burn cream and bandages put on her left arm and abdomen. The accident was deemed serious enough for the hospital by Nurse Deb.

“Beakers on the floor were broken and there was blue dye all over,” Nurse Deb said. “She had some pretty significant areas of redness. They looked like they were going to blister, and burns can become infected very easily so I sent her to the E.R.”

Nonetheless, Grooms is feeling okay. After taking a couple days off she has returned to teaching her science and math classes. While it is referred to by Grooms as a “stupid mistake” her students will appreciate their colored goggles a little extra this year.