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When your kid’s school asks you for help with something, you should help them whenever you can.

What would you do if you worked in the A/V field and your kid’s school asked you to help get the school PA system to stop screeching loudly?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he tried to help, but eventually determined that the only way to stop it quickly was to cut all the cables. The school approved it, so he cut them. Later, however, he learned that it cost the school $14,000 to get them back working, so now he feels bad.

While I can certainly understand why he feels guilty, he was only trying to help. Read through the full story below and see what you think he should have done.

AITA – Cost the school 14k

As I was picking up my son from school one day, I was approached by a teacher who knows I work in the Audio Visual install world.

It is always nice to help when you can.

She asks me (over a blaring screech coming through all the speakers in school) if I might know how to shut down this integrated PA they have.

I said I could try. Why not? For clarity I work in the automotive car audio industry. So, while I have a healthy understanding of automotive AV, I am not highly versed in home or commercial. But I digress.

What do they expect him to do?

Her and the maintenance man cannot get me into the room where the control equipment is because the key is somehow missing.

At this point I should have said, “nope can’t help”, and then left it be. But it was Friday and they had tried to reach this company several times and these speakers were REALLY out.

It’s crude, but it will work.

It would wail and screech alternately over and over. Kids walking with headphones in or covering there ears. This had been going on for something like 30 mins already.

So, I stuck my foot in it. In the very next room in the rafters I found the speaker line bundle.

Problem solved. For now.

I told them the only way I could make it stop was to cut all the lines. They would need to be soldered back together and I warned them that the company that services the equipment would likely charge for that.

Was told by the maintenance guy to cut it. So I did.

Cutting cables isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

What I didn’t know, hence my post and why I should have just stayed out of it, was that those systems have repeaters and amplifiers along the way.

Makes sense in hindsight that a system with that many speakers would need boosters along the way.

I cut each one, one by one, with only my phones flashlight and at a weird angle in the rafters. Those details are a feeble but true statement attempting to excuse the next part.

Fiber cables CAN be spliced, but it is difficult, precision work. Much better to run a new cable.

Some of the cables I cut were fiber optic and some carried data and some carried who knows what. All were the same color and gauge.

Now I can go into the fact that all lines (even fiber optic) can be spliced but in my own field I always insist on replacing instead of splicing when possible because in the long run it proves more reliable.

Splicing fiber cables back together isn’t something the average person can do.

While a speaker wire can be soldered and be “as good as new” – a data line can (if rarely) have issues if the resistance in the solder splice changes the voltage on the line.

A fiber optic line can be spliced but… I understand the manufacturers wanting to have the system redone to ensure quality over the long term.

He got permission; it isn’t his fault.

So in short… I get it. I shouldn’t have cut them.

I thought I was helping but now the school has a 14k bill to rerun the lines I cut and I feel like shit about it.

AITA?

There is no way it should be $14k to solder some cables back together and rerun some fiber cables, unless those fibers are miles long. Either way, he was doing his best to help. Of course, I understand why he feels bad.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about the situation.

Here is someone who says he did nothing wrong.

This person thinks he is at fault.

He shouldn’t have been willing to cut the cables.

It was a series of unfortunate decisions.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a landlord who took action after a resident refused to respect an assigned parking spot.

This commenter thinks he should have known better.

He warned the school, and they told him to do it anyway. This is not his fault, even if it does make sense that he feels bad about it.

Of course, the school should not expect him to pay for the repairs.