Beachcomber writers were asked to take notes on the heat during the second week of school. Here is what they observed…
Relaxing Outside the Library by Daniel Sherriff
Walking outside from the library, students are confronted with bright sun and warm weather. Teenagers are grouped together in cliques, trying to stay in the shade. They are all having lunch. A group of girls is on the grass, eating lunch and chatting. Another group is sitting together at a table under the shade. Everyone is talking. Some people just want to slack on the grass. Another student comes outside with a phone in hand. The heat does not bother anyone.
The students continue to come outside into the warm weather. A girl comes to the table, which is full of boys, and they greet her. A student goes back inside, whistling “Isn’t She Lovely,” by Stevie Wonder. Another girl comes by the guys’ table, and they chastise her for dropping her Hebrew class. One student takes another’s seat as he gets up. Although it is hot, it does not stress anyone out and they are relaxed. The guys soon get into a discussion: how does a person put the cap from a Gatorade bottle inside the bottle itself? A bee begins to buzz around the table. One guy at the table seems to dominate the conversations. Another student moves a chair and it startles a girl who is also sitting at the table. Soon the guys begin to toss around a Gatorade bottle, upsetting the owner, who wants it back. Soon, students begin to throw their lunch away and head back inside.
The door from the library to outside is open. Librarian Paige Dudley says, “We have a little bit of cool air in here, we like to keep it.”
I close the door and head back inside of the palace of knowledge.
Hotter than Many Summer Days by Marisa Simon
As students walk from the outside air into the enclosed quarters of the school, happy faces turn sad. Every classroom in the building is about eighty-degrees; hotter than many summer days.
Students rush, at any chance they can get, to the few air-conditioned rooms. Teachers struggle to keep the students’ attention during each lesson. As the rooms grow hotter, the students become even more likely to sleep through their school lessons. Some teachers even rotate rooms every day, in order to get away from the sweltering heat. The rooms that are the warmest are the upstairs rooms and the cafeteria. Entering the cafeteria, students are greeted by a huge fan, supplying much of the room with refreshing cold air. Although this does help people as they walk into the room, it does not keep them cooled down for long.
As students leave their classrooms, there is a sigh of relief as everybody enters the not-so-hot hallways. Walking down the hallways, students converse and complain that the heat is making them tired, worn-out, and even less willing to come to school. Many teachers are attempting to cool off their rooms with fans, open windows, and another alternative: going to a cooler, air conditioned room in the building. Although the past two weeks have been roasting-hot inside of the school, the weeks to come look a lot better for the students and teachers. Moving towards winter, students can expect to be slightly cooler in the weeks to come.
Mother Nature’s Reign by Courtney Fishman
Partially cold water bottles stagger on desktops, and warm perspiration drips from the foreheads of students. A musty aroma fills the room accompanied by the tap tap tapping of fingernails, a hopeful distraction to speed up time.
The temperature is rising, the room is getting hotter… the day couldn’t get any worse.
However that statement is false.
It’s only 8/9th period and class hasn’t even begun.
As students wait for the bell to sound, complaints permeate the room, each clique gathering together to talk about the heat.
“We should just go to the atrium and learn”, one student declares.
“There is no way I can pay attention in class with this heat”, claims another.
In the hallway a girl explains, “that the high school could have had air conditioning but they decided the clock tower was a better choice.”
The commotion comes to a stop when the teacher enters her sweltering hot classroom.
In a whispered tone she mutters, “The resource room is empty, grab your stuff, and follow me.”
A hopeful energy flows into the room as the students let out a sigh of relief. Their lips begin developing into full-fledged smiles while stuffing books, pens and paper into their backpacks.
The juniors cautiously walk through the hallway hoping not to disturb the other classes. The students scramble to find an available seat as if the music stopped and they didn’t want to lose the game of musical chairs.
The icy cool sensation soothes each body, leaving the students attentive and ready to learn.
As the teacher begins her lectures, a gentle knock is heard.
Twenty hopeful freshmen gather around the door yearning to transfer rooms, but they arrived too late.
The juniors begin to cackle about their victory, proud to have escaped Mother Nature’s reign on BHS.
Among the Preschoolers by Jordin Luxenberg
Outside of Fairmount School on Thursday, September 2nd, the grass was very dry like hay. The wind was blowing off the baseball field. The sidewalk was hot. The sun was going in and out of the clouds.
The air had a huge amount of moisture. There were teenagers walking home from school and many were wearing shorts, tank tops and flip-flops. This reporter was playing with the preschool kids and reading to them. The boys soccer team was playing out in the heat, but they were not out there for long.
People were walking and running, and they were sweating like crazy. One woman commented, “It is really humid out.”
It was very sticky and humid. Outside it felt like it was the middle of July or August. Another woman said that it felt “like a sauna.”
The playground equipment was hot, especially the metal polls that the swings hang from.
One teacher commented, “It’s too hot for my class to be outside so, they are in the gym playing.”
The after-care class did not go outside that day because it was too hot, so they played with the trains in the hallway and in the classroom. This reporter thought that it was too hot for anyone to be outside that day.
Fans and Air Conditioners in High Demand by Molly Dann
Walking down the hallway, signs of the heat are hard to miss. Air conditioners whir, struggling to cool down the school, to no avail. Signs on classroom doors with working air conditioners offer walkthroughs–for a price. Murmurs shoot from student to student, cursing the heat.
In the first weeks of school, 80°, 91°, and 93° are just a few of the unbearable temperatures we have had to endure. And still, those were the temperatures outside. Step into BHS and you’re entering another world. About 665 people, crammed into an old building only makes matters worse.
Fans and air conditioners have been in high demand. Some teachers even move their classes into empty rooms that aren’t as warm. Luckily, we live in Cleveland. In a few short weeks, the weather will be so cold that we’ll be begging for the school days spent in broiling classrooms.
Temperature Affects Learning by Eva Muschkin
It is hard not to notice all of the comments being made about the temperature in the classrooms. The English and social studies hallways get the most complaints. Entering a hot classroom, student after student becomes less concerned with learning and more impatient about leaving.
One student can’t see the light chalk on the board, but while the teacher heads over to the light switch to flick them back on, another shouts, “Keep the lights off, it’s too hot!” It doesn’t make much of a difference, but kids think it does and therefore the classroom becomes dark, miserable, hot, and tiring.
In one of the rooms, there are three fans that blow the hot air around the room, and also manage to create a disturbance by making loud noises and blowing papers around. One teacher tells students to, “go home and tell your parents that it is too hot to focus in these classrooms, because they pay the tax dollars.”
Around the room, sweatshirts are being ripped off, hair is being tied up, sleeves are being rolled up, and beads of sweat are glistening on the foreheads of my classmates. Even more than normal, hands go up to ask if they can get drinks of water and go to the bathroom. Classroom discussions go on about how hot it is and which windows should be open. Students ask if class can be held outside one day because of the uncomfortable humidity and mugginess in the classrooms. A number of complaints are made during each forty-eight minute period, and block periods–eighty full minutes of pain—are even worse. When the bell rings, thighs are ripped off of sweaty seats, and students sprint for the door.
If the temperature in classrooms in BHS is such an issue for students and learning, why is it not in our top priorities for being fixed?
