Hellfire: Hellish conditions causing distress within the student body

by Dalton Raykowski

Co-Managing Editor

May 2022

92 degrees. This is what some third-floor classrooms felt like in the afternoon, after being adjusted for humidity. There were also rooms in the upper 80-degree range starting at 8:30 AM. This is coming from temperature readings taken the week of May 12 when the area was going through a brief heatwave. “I don’t even want to be at school while it is that hot inside and outside,” said sophomore Kaydynce Hardin. “It's getting to be hotter in some of the classrooms than it is outside.” Temperatures like this would be expected in an environment such as the outside world, not in a school where students are expected to focus.

In certain circumstances this heat has caused severe problems. “It is incredibly difficult to stay active in class during the summer because of the sweltering heat. I can't play during Wind Ensemble and find it incredibly difficult to stay awake during my Physics class,” said junior Emmanuel Martinez Garcia. “The lack of air conditioning affects my learning heavily and I know that it affects others more than me.”

Per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the desire to learn falls out of focus when basic comfort is obtainable. When students are focused on keeping cool, they do not have a productive learning mindset. In a survey sent out to the student body, 96.7 percent of the 60 who responded felt that the lack of air conditioning negatively impacted their learning. Similarly, 93.3% said that the heat was a deterrent to their focus in the classroom.

Naturally, the heat does not affect everyone equally, which raises concerns about equity. According to Stanford University’s Institute for International Studies, “‘Heat seems to negatively impact all students, but the effects appear to be much worse for more vulnerable students,’” Patrick Behrer, a postdoctoral scholar in Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment, said. “‘As a result, it seems likely that increasing heat exposure may exacerbate existing educational inequalities.’”

There are a few students who have not found the heat to be as much of a problem as others, though. “Normally it's okay, but the humidity makes it awful to deal with,” said sophomore Patrick Rochester.

Humidity is one aspect of these current conditions that have proven to be quite problematic. Around the school, there have been pipes in restrooms with condensation built up demonstrating high humidity. More problematic, however, is the fact there have had to be wet floor signs put up due to the presence of moisture on the floor.

There is one student who reported to have fallen up the stairs numerous times when the condensation was high, leading to slight bruising.

According to the district’s director of facilities, Sean Winters, there are plans to address the issue. “We plan to convert the entire building to DDC (Direct Digital Control) which will give us eyes and control over the entire building. As part of the project, we are asking for a price to install air conditioning on the third floor as well as lay the infrastructure to transition the rest of the building as funding allows.”

There are obstacles to installing air conditioning in the building, ranging from price to the age of the building, to the fact that the entire building has never had air conditioning. Some students said that, at the very least, alternatives should be provided. “If we can’t have air conditioning installed in our rooms, then we should at least be sent home early during the school day if deemed too hot,” said senior Naoki Nikora. “There is no point in going to school (where the primary purpose is learning) if we can’t focus on anything because of the (potentially dangerous) heat. Now that we have zoom, maybe we can just conduct virtual classes on the days where it’s too hot to go to school.”

Other schools in the area, such as Hononegah have gotten sent home for their air conditioning going out. Furthermore, other schools such as Turner and The Lincoln Academy have completely air-conditioned buildings, yet this is not the case for Memorial. “Our school district says that they care about our safety and want to make a good learning environment. But they are not caring at the moment about our safety,” said junior Emma Pentecost. “If the school district can put money aside for other luxuries, why can't they put money aside to install air-conditioning?”