As many students and staff discovered, Hawthorne High School’s computer network and Internet crashed over the weekend of January 3, 2014 and extended into Tuesday, January 7. The system was restored by the end of the school day on January 7, 2014 after a replacement part was installed.

According to the district’s Computer Technician, Tamer Mankej, because of the cold weather, the server room’s air conditioners turned off and didn’t turn back on causing the firewall to overheat and eventually to fry. Thus, no Internet.

The Tech department ordered a replacement firewall from South Jersey, which arrived at noon on Tuesday, getting the Internet back online by the end of the school day.

When asked how the Internet failure affected her, senior Faith Martin said, “I really needed to print something out for more than one class.”

Another senior, Allison Zuckerberg observed, “We couldn’t use the Internet in a lot of classes that use the resource as a supplement, like to watch videos.”

Teachers improvised by bringing their own devices to continue class lessons. Kali Spoelstra, English and Journalism teacher, brought her laptop to allow students to present their online projects by using an out-of-network Internet source.

The Internet was fixed by the end of the school day on Tuesday, but students and faculty certainly learned how important technology is to today’s education.