Copan Teachers, Students Use Off Day To Clean Up After Recent Storms

Severe storms hit parts of Washington County hard Thursday night.

One town had to cancel school Friday, but teachers and students in Copan still showed up to campus to clean up debris.

Instead of homework, it was yard work for Copan sophomore Carli Barnett.

"It's a lot of lifting and pulling and cutting," she said. "I was ready to go today. I was planning my outfit. And then they were like 'Oh, call it off cause of storms.’"

The sophomore could have stayed at home for an early start to her weekend, but she was out cleaning up, alongside her teachers, cafeteria cooks and peers.

"It's our school. We gotta do what we need to do at our school. We can't hire someone to come out and clean up our debris for us. We've gotta get out and do it ourselves," said third-grade teacher Sharla Reynolds.

Superintendent Chris Smith said, "We feel like we've come out pretty lucky. It could have been worse."

Smith said the football field saw the worst damage. The scoreboard snapped in half and the stadium lights are left shattered on the ground.

8/11/2017 Related Story: Storm Damage Reported In Nowata, Washington Counties

"Football team, we're gonna do the best we can. Everybody's gonna support these guys," he said. "That's what this town does. We're a pretty tight-knit community and we support each other."

Smith said cleaning up the dozens of snapped and uprooted trees at the school and nearby neighborhoods is about so much more than yard work.

"I'm proud to have them. And they have a lot of pride in our district," he said.

The superintendent is hopeful the football field will have a new scoreboard for the first football game, which is a home game in three weeks against Prue.