That's what the headline ought to read.
Between spending like drunken sailors on things we can't afford, acting like misers to our schools and other infrastructure issues, and arresting our police officers for doing their jobs, tell me again why I live in Indianapolis.
Sure doesn't seem to be a great place to bring up your kids.
I'm going to note a couple of things from the story and then the full article is archived after the break.
Not all parents appreciated the decision.Tamika Smith, who has two children at Shortridge Middle School, said she thinks the schools should be air-conditioned, but sending students home because of heat was an overreaction.
"I think that this being let out of school early because of this heat is crap," she said.
Good for her. I don't recall ever being let out of school because of the heat, and none of the schools I went to were air conditioned. (It was said that certain interior rooms in the schools I attended were air conditioned, but I had classes in those rooms, and I call bullshit.)
Ken Hansen, a seventh-grade science teacher at Shortridge, had four fans running in his second-floor classroom. He and other teachers allowed students frequent water breaks and kept a tight leash on discipline so tempers didn't flare.And Hansen turned the heat into a lesson when students asked him to turn off the lights to make it cooler. He explained the difference between incandescent lamps and fluorescent bulbs.
The room's fluorescent bulbs, he told them, didn't emit any heat. Turning them off wouldn't help.
Here is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with schools today. Teachers by and large (I know of a few exceptions) are fucking idiots.
I gather Mr. Hansen has never heard that fluorescent lamps can only run because the fixtures they are in have BALLASTS, which sometimes get too hot to touch...and I further assume he has never grasped the concept that psychologically, a darker room "feels" cooler. But that would interfere with his liberal-approved anthropomorphic global warming lesson, I suppose; in pursuit of which he'd rather let his students suffer than turn off a light.
Heat to shut down IPS early for 2nd day
In rare move, district shortens class time as heat indexes in some buildings are recorded at more than 100 degrees
By Andy Gammill
andy.gammill@indystar.com
August 24, 2007
Indianapolis Public Schools will cut classes short for the second day in a row today, citing the combination of soaring temperatures and schools without air conditioning.
Middle and high school students will be released at noon, and elementary school students will get out at 1:25 p.m. or 1:35 p.m., depending on which school they attend.
Superintendent Eugene White said Thursday he made the decision after hearing reports from the schools and seeing the forecast. IPS has called off classes because of heat only once or twice in the past decade.
Other area school districts canceled athletic practices and postponed games, but most schools have air-conditioned classrooms and didn't need to dismiss classes early.
IPS has air conditioning in about half of its schools, and a $475 million bond issue that would install it in the rest has been placed on hold while officials study Marion County's skyrocketing property taxes.
Some IPS buildings -- especially the older ones -- can become sweltering in the heat. District nurses calculated heat indexes at more than 100 degrees inside at least two schools.
"This building is like a convection oven," said Lynn Henderson, principal at School 20. "By 1 o'clock, all we're doing is blowing hot air around."
Temperatures rose steadily throughout the day in Katie Cain's classroom there. About 1 p.m., her kindergartners had just returned from "recess" in the school's air-conditioned basement and were squabbling.
"They're getting a little restless in the afternoon, to say the least," Cain said.
Cain used arts-and-crafts time to have the students construct fans out of paper plates. Parents donated drinks for students to put in new sippable cups, a gift from the teacher.
Outside, Lisa Bowers waited to pick up her niece and nephews. She said one boy has asthma and had trouble breathing at school.
"I'm glad it is letting out early," she said. "I think the schools need air conditioning."
White began hearing Wednesday afternoon that it might be necessary to send students home early Thursday to avoid having them in classes during the hottest times of the day.
He said he decided to let students go home rather than force them to sit in classrooms he considered dangerous.
"I've never closed school because of heat before in my life, and I've been doing school administration for 30 years," he said. "We're trying to think of the health of the students."
Not all parents appreciated the decision.
Tamika Smith, who has two children at Shortridge Middle School, said she thinks the schools should be air-conditioned, but sending students home because of heat was an overreaction.
"I think that this being let out of school early because of this heat is crap," she said.
Students at Shortridge, though, let out a roaring cheer when the bell rang at noon to dismiss them. The three-story building's upper floors are legendary for being stifling.
"Basically, you don't have to stay in there and be sweaty and hot," said Raymond Brinkley, a seventh-grader at Shortridge.
Ken Hansen, a seventh-grade science teacher at Shortridge, had four fans running in his second-floor classroom. He and other teachers allowed students frequent water breaks and kept a tight leash on discipline so tempers didn't flare.
And Hansen turned the heat into a lesson when students asked him to turn off the lights to make it cooler. He explained the difference between incandescent lamps and fluorescent bulbs.
The room's fluorescent bulbs, he told them, didn't emit any heat. Turning them off wouldn't help.
