All high school laptops recalled from RCS following "explosions"
May 10—HAMLET — Richmond County Schools recollected all take-home laptops from high school students on Tuesday after ten devices have overheated and "exploded" sporadically across the past few months.
"What happens is the battery starts to overheat and swell inside the device," said Superintendent Dr. Joe Ferrell. "I hate to use the term explodes, but it kind of explodes inside and sometimes will break through the plastic. It's sort of more melting out."
Ferrell said in one incident that a student's clothing was impacted by the melting, and that one student's bed covering was damaged at home. A few of the "explosions" have taken place in lockers. This has only happened to HP laptops at Richmond Senior High School that students take home with them, but devices from the other high schools have still been recalled.
"The company [Hewlett Packard] believes that it is related to the device not being shut down properly," Ferrell said, adding that a representative has come to inspect the devices.
All devices were collected Tuesday afternoon and there are no plans to return any of these laptops to students in the future. It's been determined that most of the affected devices were about five years old. It's not clear why this has only happened to laptops at RSHS, but computers that are stationed inside the building will not be recalled.
"Luckily, 6-8 EOGs are before 9-12 EOCS [end of course testing], so they will be able to use the same devices," shared executive director of curriculum and instruction Dr. Kate Smith. There will be no changes or impact on end of year testing due to the recall.
In an email to central office staff, Principal Jim Butler said that the recollection of all devices went smoothly and department heads are working on plans to prepare packets and review materials for testing.
