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Friday, April 25, 1997

West Texas town has taught students 'down under' for 30 school years

By MARK BABINECK

Associated Press Writer

ASPERMONT, Texas (AP) - People in most Tornado Alley towns fret first about the local schoolhouse when violent storms brew. Here, folks wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Aspermont students here have attended class "down under" for 30 years at their below-ground high school, possibly the most tornado-proof secondary institution in the state.

"My first year here we had a tornado come through town,," said Superintendent Ray Miller, who arrived in 1995. "The principal said it looked like Noah's ark up here. Everyone had cats and dogs and everything else."

City fathers built the school in 1966 wary of Soviet nukes, not killer twisters. Since then, townspeople have nestled inside the building's three-foot thick walls whenever area storm sirens wail.

Miller, principal Robert Gibson and the sheriff hold keys to the building. In West Texas, major storms tend to ignite in the late afternoon or at night, meaning one of the three has to open the building for wary Stonewall County residents.

Gibson opened up the building six times his first year here in 1995. Drought conditions last year kept the sirens quiet, and the area hasn't faced terribly severe weather yet in '97.

"(A tornado) isn't going to knock anything down," Gibson said. "This place isn't going anywhere."

The only room with windows is Miller's office, which looks out onto the rooftop flagpole plaza. The flat roof rises about five feet off the ground.

The structure blunts the effects of more routine weather phenomena, too.

"I've been up here in the summer when they had the air conditioning off, and it's cooler than it would be in other buildings," Miller said.

Aspermont student Leah Dowell didn't grow up here, and she admits that the building took her aback at first.

"I thought it was really odd because I've never seen anything like it," said Miss Dowell, a senior. "I guess I've gotten used to it."

Students from both the junior high and the high school share both the underground building and the more traditional junior high across the street. All 365 pupils in the district share the cafeteria located there.

Fellow senior Amanda Walker said she's lived here all her life, so going below the surface to learn was nothing new for her.

"I just kind of hated it because in class, if you get bored or something, you can't look out the window and daydream," Miss Walker said. "You're just stuck there." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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