Thursday, August 09, 2007

HOT! HOT! HOT!

With temperatures soaring into the 100’s, are our kids better off in school or at home?

This is the first year in which my children have attended YR school and also the first time in which they are riding the bus.  The thought never occurred to me that the buses didn’t have air conditioning.  I thought that was a no brainer.  It gets HOT here and this week has been stifling.  When it was in the 90’s and the kids came home from school, their little faces were all red and sweaty.  I asked them that first day if the bus had air conditioning and they all said NO!  I was really not happy about that but they assured me that with all the windows open the breeze kept them cool.  I really didn’t buy that for one second but OK.

So when I first heard that the temps were going to get above 100 degrees this week I thought surely they would cancel school because of the dangers of heat on young children.  You see it all over the TV, be careful with the elderly and very young.  Well school went on as planned.  Recess has been indoors all week for the children so that they don’t get overwhelmed by the heat.  And yesterday, to my utter surprise, they came home on a different bus.  An air conditioned bus.  I was relieved.  Just sitting at the bus stop waiting for the kids was an extreme experience when my car thermometer read 107 degrees this afternoon. This showed that they had some planning in place to help relieve the heat on the bus for the riders.  I am, however, dismayed that this did not occur for everyone.  I should.  No questions asked. 

So the question was are they better off in school or at home.  That is a toss up for me.  I feel that if they were at home, then riding an overheated bus would not be an issue.  But then they would probably be bored watching movies or playing video games all day.  At least in school they are learning something and being productive.  I find that school administrators have made, for the most part, good decisions about recess at our school.  I did just find out that my older child did actually have morning recess but was only allowed to remain outside for 20 minutes max.  At least it was only in the nineties then;)  I don’t really agree with that one but he is at an active age and probably needed to run some outside to burn off excess energy. 

Why does this county still have buses without air conditioning?  For the safety of our children I must insist that this be a high priority if the county is going to continue with YR schedules.  This should have been part of the planning for this and yet somehow they seemed to overlook it.  Was it an honest oversight or a supreme lack of knowledge or caring for our children?  What do you think?