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Union boils over DOE’s inaction during heat wave
Jun 5, 2008 3:46 PM
During a press conference outside UFT headquarters in muggy 97-degree weather, President Randi Weingarten cites heat-related incidents at the city’s public schools.
In nearly 100-degree heat, with a white sun beating down unmercifully, UFT President Randi Weingarten announced at a June 10 press conference in front of union headquarters that the union has asked the state Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau to cite the Department of Education for violating state health laws by failing to protect students and staff in city schools during the early June heat wave.
“When schools are not properly air conditioned and the heat approaches 100 degrees, kids can’t learn and teachers can’t concentrate,” Weingarten said. “Asthma and other heat-related conditions or illnesses are exacerbated and could, under certain circumstances, lead to heat exhaustion.”
Weingarten also criticized the DOE for failing to respond to the union’s June 9 call for protocols to protect students and educators.
“If the city Health Department can implement codes to protect carriage horses during periods of excessive heat, then the Department of Education should be able to take steps to protect our students and educators,” she said. “But instead of showing concern for students and staff suffering because of the stifling conditions, they instead have people like [right-wing education gadfly] Sy Fliegel make insensitive, flippant comments, whining that teachers will look to have a contract that says you can’t work when the temperature exceeds 96 degrees.”
Fliegel’s comments were published in the New York Sun.
Ironically, after the PESH complaint was filed and the heat wave was over, the DOE printed some medical guidelines:
“Children are at risk for heat-related illness and may have lower exercise tolerance when the outdoor temperature is above 95 degrees. Exercise intolerance may occur with temperatures less than 95 degrees if there is also high humidity. In order to minimize risk of heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke, intensity of outdoor activities lasting more than 15 minutes should be reduced during days when the ambient temperature is in the 90s and humidity is high. Students should have easy access to water and be encouraged to drink often. Clothing should be light-colored and lightweight. Please pay special attention to children who may be more susceptible to heat intolerance, including those who are obese, may have diabetes, or are suffering from a gastrointestinal illness. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Oxiris Barbot in the Office of School Health at 1-212-442-1554 or obarbot@schools.nyc.gov.”
The union filed its complaint after receiving numerous calls from teachers and principals in dozens of schools across the city about excessive heat posing a health hazard to students and staff with asthma or other respiratory conditions.
The DOE ignored the request to issue protocols for excessively hot weather. In fact, in many schools the DOE proceeded with giving students predictive tests that could have been postponed until the heat wave abated.
PESH is a division of the New York State Department of Labor, giving it jurisdiction in such cases. The complaint specifically alleges that the DOE “is in violation of the general duty clause (Section 5(a)(1) and has failed to protect workers from the serious and recognized hazard of excessive heat.”
John Dewey HS in Brooklyn was listed as the primary affected school for purposes of filing the complaint. Attached to the complaint was a list of additional schools that contacted the union on June 9 to complain about conditions. They included IS 135 in the Bronx; PS 95, PS 167, IS 281, PS 442 and Clara Barton HS in Brooklyn; PS 28 in Manhattan; PS 127, PS 173 and PS 256 in Queens; and Tottenville and Susan Wagner high schools in Staten Island.
Going beyond the complaint, the UFT renewed its call on the DOE to establish protocols for dealing with hot schools similar to the ones used during summer school.
Weingarten noted that, during summer school, classes are held in buildings that are air-conditioned. Also, she said, classes aren’t held on the hot top floors and sessions run only half a day.
The union continued to receive complaints from educators in schools on June 10, including PS 71 in the Bronx where a principal sent a teacher home because he wore shorts that extended below the knee.
“We strongly encourage the DOE to come up with and communicate a course of action for days when the temperature is expected to hover in the mid-90s,” Weingarten said. “Consideration needs to be given to closing some schools or instituting early dismissals.”
In the absence of protocols, the union urged school administrators and educators in buildings without air conditioning to:
- keep lights off in the classrooms;
- keep shades down;
- move classes to lower floors and large spaces such as the cafeteria and auditorium;
- move students out of the building to shaded spaces;
- restrict strenuous activity;
- drink plenty of water and make certain students drink plenty of water; and
- revise work schedules by increasing breaks and reducing activity.
