Hot enough for you?
UFT president Randi Weingarten is urging the DOE to to consider protocols to protect students and teachers in schools without air conditioning from the extreme heat.
Weigh in through the Insideschools poll...
posted by Tanner Kroeger
12 comments:
Those suggestions seem completely reasonable, just basic common sense! I hope DOE (and the public) won't be against them simply because they come from the teachers union. This is clearly one of those cases where the union's recommendations are 100% in line with the best interests of our children!
Our School (PS 58) in Brooklyn had limited electricity today due to multiple issues. Some classrooms had no lights let alone air conditioning. I chose to remove my children early. I have to question why children are expected to stay in schools like this. How many days of school have we had? I think their should be a mandate to end school before June 15th. June is tough but we know September is potentially that much worse.
I think the DOE could go a step further and mandate air conditioning! My 3rd grader son came home and told tales of his classmates fighting to be in front of the lone fan in their classroom! At lunch time recess, all of the kids tried to cluster in the 1/4 of the yard that had shade! Needless to say, he's staying home today.
I work in a school-based health center. The kids on the top floor (5th) came in throughout the day seeking water and complaining of having to take a test in rooms with neither air conditioning nor fans! I definitely think schools without AC in classrooms should either close completely or early. This is 2008. There is no excuse for our kids in NYC with some of the highest prevalence rates of asthma to be in sweltering rooms.
Schools in New Jersey and Westchester are havine early dismissals today due to the heat and I believe that many schools in New Jersey had early dismissal yesterday also.....
Most of the world—including westernized Europe—does not have or use air conditioning, or uses it sparingly. Kids there go to school in 95+ classrooms and think nothing of it. Thirty years ago, none of our NYC schools had AC, and most of those are the same exact buildings the kids are in today. These schools were never closed because it was too hot. Universal, demanded AC as a health requirement is a totally 21st century comfort-entitled American thing. Have we just, in the past decades, grown weaker than the rest of the world? This whole debate is absolutely absurd. Let's move on to the real issues here--budgeting, placement--and stop whining over indulgences.
For some, air conditioning is not a luxury, as anomymous @ 9:48 stated. My oldest child has a heart condition, and a 504. Since the school is unable to provide AC, she has to stay home.
Luxury or not, at least provide for the children that truly need it!
9:48, I respectfully disagree with you. This IS an education issue not an indulgence. If it is too hot, it is hard to concentrate as a student, hard to teach as a teacher, make effective decisions as an administrator, etc. Confrontations increase along with the heat and learning doesn't happen as well as it might.
I wrote about this to my child's principal last week (the AC unit in her classroom is busted, the windows don't open) and received a reply back that money for AC repairs comes from education funds. It should not. (Another reason to protest budget cuts!)
I can't answer for the thirty years ago in NYC, but thirty years ago in Louisiana, where I grew up, if the AC was out, we were dismissed from school (akin to snow days up here). And as for Europe, you're right that AC is not as widespread. You might also recall that dozens died in the heat wave in France a few years ago.
Very well explained 1:24.
As a follow-up, a high school student in the school in which I work was carried into our clinic this afternoon after having a severe asthma attack. EMS had to be called and she was rushed to the emergency room. Humane classroom conditions could have prevented that.
1:24pm: yes, dozens died in a heat wave in France and many people die in heat waves here in the US. That has nothing to do with air conditioning.
My son goes to PS41 which does not have air conditioning at all. I also agree that schools are not safe in this weather.
I'm a teacher in a classroom without AC and these past couple days have been brutal. Even as an adult it is hard to function in 100 degree weather. ACs should be provided to all classrooms.
I think it would be great for AC units to be in every classroom, but the reality is that many of the school buildings in this city are very old, with old wiring. We ran into this issue when our PA tried to buy AC units for our school -- there were limits on how many units our building's wiring could support and it would've cost a fortune to upgrade the wiring. In an ideal world, cost would be no obstacle, but looking at realities, ultra-hot days like this are anomolous. Given limited resources, rather than investing hundreds of millions of dollars in wiring upgrades for A/C, I'd rather see new schools built to alleviate overcrowding. Science labs, art classrooms -- those too seem like a better use of limited dollars. After all, those are things that kids can take advantage of every day of the year. Again, I wish cost was no object, but I think we all know that there are many, many things the DOE needs to tackle with respect to school facilities,and this is low on my personal priority list.
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