First off, let me start by saying that I've only heard this story from other members of the science department. But this is what I know.

Around the time when the school was forced to close it's normal operations, about five years ago-- they made a breakthrough discovery which led to a new theory about time and space travel. But before the proper simulations and tests could be run, someone ran a real life test. And it worked. But it wasn't properly perfected. And afterwards we started seeing the effects.