7:00 a.m.: Students begin entering the building for school.

7:09 a.m.: The warning bell rings and students begin to leave their social gathering places to get to class before the music stops.

7:15 a.m.: The bell rings and another day at Lake Central High School begins.

Usually.

Due to a microprocessor issue, the bells did not ring to start the day at LC on Oct. 23.

Students still came in the building at 7:00. At 7:09, students continued socializing to quiet, music-less hallways. At 7:12, students began realizing that the bells would not start their day.

“I was really confused. It’s become a part of an everyday thing. I was like, ‘where is [the bell]?” Valerie Graves (11) said.

Because the bells and intercom run on the same system, no announcements could be made to make students aware of the problem. Around 7:13, principals monitoring the students were told to get students out of the hallways and into class.

“Most halls were clear by 7:18,” Mr. Ed Beck, freshmen assistant principal, said.

Along with the confusion, students and staff were also left wondering what caused the bells to disappear from the LC morning routine.

“A microprocessor locked up on the system, so it was reset and replaced. When all else fails, reboot,” a technician from Interstate, the company that runs the intercom system, said.

Shortly before the end of second period, the problem was solved and the bells, along with multiple test announcements, signaled a successful repair of the mechanism.

Should this problem with the 20-year-old intercom system arise again, a further investigation will be done by Mr. Tom Rainwater, maintenance.