CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Students and faculty over at Tuloso-Midway Independent School District experienced a temporary internet outage that primarily affected the intermediate school as STAAR testing was supposed to begin.
The outage being caused by a downed powerline.
Tuloso-Midway Superintendent Steve VanMatre said it all began when someone allegedly drove underneath the cable and hooked it with a piece of equipment, pulling down about 1,500 feet of cabling.
As a result, he said that when he found out about the internet outage, he along with others decided to move STAAR testing dates.
"On Tuesday we were scheduled to have STAAR testing," VanMatre said. "We would postpone those testing dates until Thursday."
The superintendent said there are other issues that stem from the outage.
"Our parents, we got close to 1,000 kids over there, that right now our parents can't call in to get any information," he said.
3NEWS spoke with a parent who wished not to be identified, who said that incidents like these can cause stress on both ends.
"It's throwing off the teachers and the staff," she said. "You know, they prepare all year for this and so having to change it kind of throws off their day."
Corpus Christi At-Large Councilman Mike Pusley said that when he and other city leaders were notified, work crews were immediately sent out.
"I reached out to the city IT Department and confirmed indeed there had been a cable break and that city crews were on-sight to attempt to get it fixed," he said.
In the meantime, VanMatre said there is still flexibility in the situation.
"Texas Education Agency gives us a window that we can put all of our state assessments in, so tomorrow won't be the only day that we utilize testing," he said.