Students at one local school could go, but they couldn’t flush

Some parents are unhappy after learning that students at Montague Village Elementary School on Fort Hood were told they could go to the restroom, but that they couldn’t flush Friday after heavy rain caused pipes to shift beneath a sidewalk and toilets to back up.

Natalie Collette Argyle said she first learned of the problem when she picked up her daughter Friday afternoon.

She said her daughter said students were told “They can either hold it or they can go in a toilet full of waste.”

She had to go quickly to go to the bathroom and I didn’t realize it was because she was holding it all day,” Argyle said

“All the heavy rains recently caused some of the pipes underneath the installation’s sidewalk to shift, which then caused some toilets to back up shortly before noon Friday,” Killeen ISD spokesman Terry Abbott said in a statement Monday.

“Maintenance workers advised school leaders to allow the children to use the toilets, but not to flush them until repairs could be made. Since the school day was almost half over, this was an appropriate approach,” he said.

Repairs were competed over the weekend and the school’s plumbing was functioning normally Monday, he said.

Argyle is upset that she wasn’t notified of the problem, however.

“I know for a fact I at least would have said ‘I’ll grab my daughter for a few minutes and bring her back’ so she wouldn’t feel desperate the rest of the day.” Argyle said.

“Cutting us out is not the answer,” she said.

“How can we feel OK sending our kids seven hours a day when we don’t know what’s going on?”