Deja vu or something like it

This morning I was working on the school computer when all of a sudden
the secretary comes in and announces "Dan! The chemicals are leaking!"
I followed her to the lab and sure enough, there was a bottle of
concentrated sulphuric acid (at least the bottle was labelled this
time) that had eaten through the bottle and was spilling onto the
floor. All I could muster was "Fancy that." I lazily took the
carbonate out of the cabinet and started neutralizing the acid. I was
sprinkling it by hand and waving it in the faces of other teachers
(sodium carbonate is harmless). Then, rather than find another bottle
for it to eat through slowly, I just threw it down the toilet. I
proceeded to sprinkle ash down there to neutralize the acid so that I
wouldn't contaminate the groundwater or the air. Well, minimize the
effect, at any rate.

This response was markedly different from the last time this happened
for several reasons. First, I have accepted that the school has no
intention of finding a lab technician, so doing labs will be an
extreme rarity in the near future, so there is little reason to keep
such large supplies of dangerous chemicals, especially without
adequate means of storage. Second, I am much less concerned about
damage to the school building as I have seen that these acid spills
are far from the greatest threat. Third, I have little optimism for
the future of the school with the way the principal is currently
handling things. He left a message this weekend that there would be
another week of lessons before exams without stating any reason. This
confuses a whole lot of things that we had planned in our lessons, and
he is not even here today to explain why. More frustratingly, he told
our teacher who had come from university to take some of our lessons
and reduce our burden that the school would pay him an undisclosed
amount (read very small sum) and it would only do so well into the
future. Looks like we just lost a teacher. I know that money is a
problem at the school, but I am pretty sure the principal takes a per
diem stipend every day he misses school (that is approaching 75% of
school days). And no one actually sees any benefits for the school
from any of his trips.

These days, small acid spills are the least of my worries.