The library opened up an escape room, on Oct. 27, 2017. It is available to all students and staff. The escape room, titled Locked, is based on the book The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee. Our librarian, Shana Nowlin, set this room up for the school.

Up to 4 people try to escape from the fictitious setting of a 1000 floor building. If the escapees aren’t able to solve the puzzle in 15 minutes, a psychotic killer wakes from unconsciousness and throws them off of the building.

“I was trying to find something fun to get more kids into the library,” Nowlin said. “I saw a presentation on creating your own escape room at my library convention last spring. I decided that this would be really fun for the students and the staff. It makes them use higher thinking, and working together as a group.”

Student Brandon Murphy went through the escape room on Oct. 27. He completed the puzzles and escaped in just over 10 minutes. Murphy thought it would have taken longer.

“The escape room was really challenging,” Murphy said. “I had to use more brain power than I ever had before. It required a lot of teamwork, I don’t think I could have done it on my own.”

Multiple staff teams have gone through the escape rooms. The Math team was able to escape in 9 minutes and 21 seconds. They currently hold the fastest time. Locked, is open until Nov. 3, 2017.