Children Forced To Sit In 30-Degree Classrooms With No Heat

Keep Reading ↓

After the Christmas break, students and staff in several Baltimore schools returned to classrooms without any heat and burst pipes — all amid freezing temperatures.

Under circumstances such as these, one would think that schools would temporarily close until the problems could be solved, but that wasn’t the case.

Students were forced to bundle up in coats, hats, and gloves and continue on with their normal school day — even though classroom temperatures were in the 30s.

Some of the pictures sent to us of Baltimore City Students at school today. The question now is will it be warmer in classes tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/zRPKGANmj5

— Eddie Kadhim (@EddieKadhimABC2) January 3, 2018

In total, four Baltimore schools suffering from infrastructure issues and lack of heat eventually closed on Wednesday, but students still had to endure an entire day in frigid temperatures on Tuesday.

That’s about 8 or 9 hours in 30-degree temperatures — all the layers, coats, and gloves in the world aren’t going to make a difference after spending that many hours in that kind of cold.

Really – How effective could that school day have been?

To absorb information for eight hours under those conditions when all you can think about is how freezing you are. Not to mention it’s practically impossible to even grip a pencil and write or even type with winter gloves on.

Samierra Jones, a college senior and Baltimore County Schools alum, has created a GoFundMe to help provide space heaters in classrooms en masse.

We (teachers) just got an email that schools are open to provide services to kids and teachers need to deal with it, basically. Obviously the kids need it, but good policy isn’t using teachers’ love of kids to make us work in unsafe conditions.

— (((Mr. Schneiderman))) (@JesseOneT) January 3, 2018

“Baltimore City Public Schools are currently operating with an inadequate heating system,” she states on the donation page. “Students are still required to attend classes that are freezing and expected wear their coats to assist in keeping them warm. How can you teach a child in these conditions?”

The fundraiser goal is to raise $20,000, which will provide space heaters and outerwear to help keep students warm.

The Baltimore Teachers Union is now urging the city to shut down all schools until the heating problems can be addressed, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“This is the best way to ensure the safety of our members and our children,” says union president, Marietta English.

This saga is just one of many ways lower-income areas suffer — many Baltimore County students rely on free meals at schools, as well as after-school care provided by many schools in the area, The Sun reports.

The safety of being at school is also compromised when frozen pipes have burst, and old, drafty windows coupled with broken down heating systems result in frigid classroom temperatures.

Former NFL player — and current elementary teacher in Baltimore — Aaron Corbin is also urging people to donate and help.

Update: yesterday we raised 8,000$ of our $20,000 goal to get space heaters and winter coats for the kids in the affected schools. Thank you to everyone that has donated so far. Let’s keep this going. School is closed today so I will be collecting items myself. pic.twitter.com/ryRbiJXuyt

— Aaron Maybin (@AaronMMaybin) January 4, 2018

Aaron shared a video of his students from earlier this week on Twitter as they talk about how cold they are.

This.Is.Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/1WKTV2g63o

— Aaron Maybin (@AaronMMaybin) January 3, 2018

Unacceptable!

Ifyou’d like to help get these kids what they need so they can get back to school, you can donate to the GoFundMe here.