Flood disrupts day at Rockville high school

An ill-fated toss of a medicine ball snapped a fire sprinkler head and led to flooding at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville on Tuesday morning, disrupting the school day and possibly causing damage to the school's dance studio.

Montgomery County schools spokesman Dana Tofig said two students playing with a medicine ball in the physical education area at 9:10 a.m. broke the sprinkler head, which disgorged enough water to flood 14 rooms on the school's ground floor with an inch or two of water. Two fire alarms were set off, students were sent out of the building, and some had to reclaim their belongings left in the gym later in the day after the sprinkler was fixed.

Capt. Oscar Garcia, a spokesman for the Montgomery County fire department, said the broken sprinkler was outside the school's weight room. The school has mounted a cleanup effort, Tofig said, and has mounted large fans and dehumidifiers to dry off the floor.

"It did affect some locker rooms and the dance studio," Tofig said. The 14 rooms "will be closed for the rest of the week. At this point, the dance studio floor may need some repair but we won't know until everything is dried out."

Tofig couldn't say for sure whether the breakage was intentional. "At this point it appears like it was an accident," he said. "It's just one of those things that can happen in a school."