It’s that time of year again – temperatures are on the rise, and schools not built within the last 10 years or so become ovens all day long due to a lack of air conditioning. Many people (particularly those without kids in school) will be shocked to learn that less than half of schools in Ontario have A/C. It’s an unacceptable problem that warrants an expedited solution.
Temperatures in schools this time of year routinely hit 30+ degrees Celsius (indoors!). Factor in some humidity, and it doesn’t take long before you have a classroom full of kids with a glaze of sweat dripping from every face. The environment is not just extremely uncomfortable, it also causes a lack of focus, dizziness, and extreme fatigue. It’s, quite simply, intolerable. When temperatures become so extreme inside schools, the focus becomes on preventing heat exhaustion and dealing with troublesome behaviours that result from heat related stress. Teaching and learning, by necessity, become a secondary focus. We must remember that children do not have fully developed sweat glands and are more prone to heat related illness. They also cannot always express when they are experiencing concerning symptoms.
I challenge anyone to name a government building in this province that doesn’t have A/C keeping the environment at a comfortable temperature in the hotter months. Most private workplaces are the same. Retail stores can be quite frigid – a welcome break for vulnerable people who don’t have A/C at home. Once a luxury, A/C is increasingly being seen as a necessity as global temperatures rise. In decades past, it may have been felt that schools didn’t need A/C because school is not in session in July or August. Now, however, school buildings become intolerably hot as early as May, and as late as October. It’s also noteworthy that custodians and some school admin workers are on site during the summer, and schools often have community groups in the summer, such as camps and extracurricular sports.
The fact that newer schools are being built with A/C is a wide open acknowledgment of the fact that there is no reason for one of our most vulnerable populations (children) to be suffering all day in unsafe temperature conditions while much less vulnerable adults across the country are working comfortably in a climate controlled environment. Yes, I fully acknowledge that many adults work outdoors in even hotter conditions or direct sunlight; but what we are expecting children to do at school is sit quietly and focus – a tricky task, even in comfortable conditions. They are not as accustomed to heat as adults are. They do not sweat as much, or regulate their temperature as efficiently as adults do. And with underdeveloped brains and natural childhood impulsiveness, they are bound to act out and do anything but learn when put in that type of environment.
It occurred to me, while sitting at my desk in a 30.3 degree Celsius, 42% humidity classroom recently, sweat literally hitting me on the shoulders as it dripped from my head and face, that things would change quickly if the Education Minister or Premier Doug Ford had to spend their whole work day thinking and focusing and being productive at that same desk. Politicians used to care enough to get out and actually see and hear and feel the issues for themselves. This is what drives good policy. Certainly some politicians still have such integrity, but, for too many, it unfortunately seems that “out of sight, out of mind” prevails. The excuses are there: “It’s probably not too bad”, or “it’s not much hotter inside than it is outside”, or “we didn’t have A/C in school when we were kids and we lived”. All easy to say when you are the one inside an air conditioned office. Any excuse to save some money while the kids and school staff have to live through exhausting conditions every day.
An organization called Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) has a useful tool offered through its website that calculates the humidex based on temperature and humidity. It turns out that 30.3 degrees Celsius with 42% humidity “feels like” 35 degrees Celsius. This is because when the air becomes more saturated with moisture (humidity), there is less room in the air for the sweat on our bodies (our main cooling system) to evaporate, making us feel hotter. The OHCOW suggests the following for adult workers in 35 Celsius humidex conditions: “Post Heat Stress Warning notice; notify workers that they need to drink extra water; ensure workers are trained to recognize symptoms”. Unfortunately, 4 and 5 year old kindergarten children are hard to “train to recognize symptoms”, and they also become irrational and fuss about something as simple as drinking water when they’re in an extremely uncomfortable environment. Some older students may have difficulty with both of these things as well, and, regardless, all are vulnerable.
Schools are about success, and yet, with the province’s archaic anti‑A/C policies, all we are doing is guaranteeing that 3‑5 months per year, students are set up to fail. We put them in an environment where they can’t think, and expect them to learn.
Let me be perfectly clear: Your child’s teachers are not to blame for this. Your child’s Principal is not to blame for this. The school board that runs your child’s school is not to blame for this, nor are the administrative professionals that run the school board. All school funding comes from the province, and with the budgets that school boards receive, there is absolutely no way they could ever afford to install A/C. The decision would need to come from the provincial government to provide the extra funding required to make the upgrades.
I’ll say it louder for those in the back: Don’t harass your child’s principal, or call the school board head office to complain about a lack of A/C. That’s just like yelling at a fast food cashier because you don’t think the prices are fair. Have your say by contacting your local MPP or the Premier’s office and demanding change. It would be a gradual and very expensive process, but let’s face it – our children and the quality of their education are more than worth it.
