At about 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday three girls were sitting in the "practice room" in the music suite at Albert Lea High School when the door of the room was shut by sophomore Andrew Schewe. There have been problems with the door throughout the year. The latch on the door was bent and has been for quite some time, causing the door to jam shut. Schewe was unaware of this problem when he closed the door. The door jammed, leaving Alexa McCune, Kaila Beckner, and Melanie Pederson trapped inside.


"We went in there as normal and playing piano," McCune said. "Then someone shut the door on us, and we realized 'Hey, we can't get out of here.'"


As time passed a small group of students, including sophomore Maddi Dickey, a friend of all three, began to gather around the door to see what was going on. A janitor was called to come and open the door; when he couldn't, the incident became humorous for some of the onlookers, thinking it wasn't a serious situation.



"I was dumbfounded, how can you possiblybe locked inside a room at your school in the afternoon?" Dickey said of watching the event unfold.



"It was really hot in there and I didn't like," Beckner said.



What started as one janitor thinking he could just use his key to fix the problem turned into two janitors, which then turned into three, and so on, until there were six janitors working to help the girls trapped inside.

After nearly two hours of using different methods to open the door, janitor Kevin Peek decided to get his saws-all and cut open the door.


"I thought it would be like 'Oh, hey, let's get the janitors to get the keys,'" Pederson said. "But no, there were like six janitors. And there was a saw and they had to take down the glass in the window. It was just bad."


As the girls stood in the room awaiting freedom, Peek sawed a triangle around the door latch. "He began to saw in a triangular shape in the door, and I’m like why a triangle, ya know? That’s what I say and… He sawed out the triangle and I’m like great how are they going to fit through that, janitor?" said Dickey, observing the janitor at work. When he finished cutting he lifted his right foot and kicked the door down. "Man! He can kick," said an onlooker. After a scream from one of the girls who was nearly hit by the falling door, the door lay on the ground, saw dust from the cut forming like a cloud in the air.

"I've always wanted to do that," Peek said, referring to kicking down the door.



"I found myself wondering if janitors even knew how to use saws." Dickey said.



With only a couple chairs and a piano, the girls were lacking entertainment outlets. McCune kept herself busy by writing and playing sad songs on the piano and doing math homework, while Beckner checked Facebook on her phone. Pederson said she sat on the piano bench sobbing.



"I didn't want to spend my afternoon inside a stupid room," Pederson said. "It was bad. I hated it."


Friends and onlookers greeted the three girls with open arms and comfort.



"I sat patiently waiting for my friends safe return to my arms." Dickey said.



"I was really happy," McCune said of being freed. "I hurried up and packed up my math book and was like 'yeah!' I ran out there and everyone was clapping. I felt like I was on the red carpet and everyone was looking at me... And then I went to go eat because I was really hungry."



Pederson was excited when the door finally came down; she had friends waiting outside and they hugged her.



"I ran to them and I hugged them, and I was like 'yeah, I'm finally free!" Pederson said.



No one was hurt in this incident, but the door will have to be replaced. A complete replacement of the door could cost the music department up to $500.