Baltimore teachers decry severely cold classrooms

“School buildings were monitored for heat & water issues throughout the holiday break,”@BaltCitySchools tweeted last night. With just two exceptions, they announced, schools would open up “on time.”

But at schools across the city, students and teachers were surprised to find flooded classrooms and indoor temperatures that were barely above freezing.

“It was miserable. The kids had their coats, hats and gloves on all day,” said Jesse Schneiderman, a social, studies teacher at Frederick Douglass High School.  

Flooding from a burst pipe had rendered one classroom at Frederick Douglass unusable, Schneiderman said, providing photos showing warped floor tiles and drenched papers.

“A teacher in our basement, because her room is under the flooded classroom, lost all of her materials,” he said. “Other teachers had to teach in the library because their classrooms were too cold.”

“We were shocked we weren’t one of the schools sent home,” Schneiderman said, noting that water also damaged the wrestling room, the weight room and the room where JROTC supplies and uniforms are stored.

City Schools only closed four schools today, but social media indicates the cold conditions could be found across the city.

“The highest it got here was 40 degrees,” said Jeffrey San Filippo, a seventh and eighth grade history teacher. “From 7 a.m. until 2:40 pmwhen school dismissed, it never warmed up.”

“I just think of all that stuff about needing to have perseverance and grit and that’s all they can say to these children,” he said. “Things we only ask of black and brown children.”

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