Local

Morrow High left in the cold after copper theft

MORROW, Ga. — Students at one school had to learn in cold classrooms after someone stole the copper wire from the heating units.

It happened at Morrow High School in the vocational building. Students say it made for a chilly day.

"It was really freezing really like. In some parts it was kind of hot and in other parts it was like drop dead cold," student Lawrence Njawa says.

Clayton County School Police say someone got on the roof and stole the copper wire. That left students wondering.

"I was like how did someone even get on the roof like to steal that," Njawa says.

Students told Channel 2's Tom Jones the theft left them cold and inconvenienced.

"It was cold. We couldn't sit in our classrooms so they made us move out in the hallway," student Phuong Dang says.

While those students were dealing stolen copper from the heating units, students at other schools in the county had to be evacuated because of broken pipes that caused flooding and left them with no heat.

Riverdale Middle School students stood outside until school officials decided it was too cold. They then rode out the emergency in the gym.

"We didn't want anyone to get frostbite," says Battalion Chief Alan Shelley with the Riverdale Fire Department.

Riverdale High, the Elite Scholars Academy and Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary all had problems with reports of fire or broken pipes.

Sherrod Clark says his daughter called and said there was a fire at MLK Elementary. Damaged pipes turned out to be the problem.

"They didn't see any smoke or anything but the emergency team responded and they were just taking proper precautions," Clark says.

Police are investigating how someone got on the roof at Morrow High. The school is preparing modular buildings to place the students in until they can repair the units.