Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1530930
Educators fight to defend students and win healthy facilities By Julian Peeples Safe Schools O r g a n i z i n g f o r Auburn Union Teachers Association members demonstrated publicly to let parents know in English and Spanish that their kids didn't have safe drinking water at school. " I ' V E H E A R D O F many teachers and even some students getting sick. They've had to close classrooms down for being unsafe," says Sam Cleare, United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) organizing committee chair. "Students have gotten nosebleeds from the heat. Teachers have fainted. It's unsafe." Across California, public school facilities are in dire need of maintenance and modernization, impacting teaching and learning conditions and putting students and communities in danger. e average age of our state's more than 10,000 public schools is about 50 years old, with 38% of Cali- fornia children attending schools that don't meet minimum standards — where they are exposed to dangers like asbestos, mold, unsafe drinking water and extreme heat. Union educators are organizing in communities statewide to defend their students and themselves and demand safe and healthy schools and classrooms. At Stege Elementary School in Richmond, parents and the community tried to get dangerous conditions addressed for years when UTR members started organizing around the issue last year. Educators recorded a long list of hazardous conditions — mold in classrooms, broken ceiling tiles, inadequate climate control, lack of access to clean drinking water and windows in classrooms that don't open, subjecting educators and students to temperatures exceeding 90 degrees — and filed complaints using the state's Williams Act process, used to ensure districts provide basic safe and healthy conditions at all public schools (see sidebar, page 19). " We collected almost 45 complaints from teachers, staff members, community and fami- lies — even some students wrote letters to the school board," says Cleare, who taught at Stege for seven years. "We were strategic in using com- munity events to engage in conversations. My school had a movie night and members of our school leadership, teachers and other staff mem- bers were able to talk about the Williams Act and collect complaints." West Contra Costa Unified School District admin failed to respond to UTR's Williams com- plaints within the timeline required by law. UTR members began speaking at school board meetings about the hazardous condi- tions at Stege, attracting the attention of public interest legal group Public Advocates. Public Advocates reached out to UTR leaders to help with the issue, eventually filing a lawsuit against 16 cta.org Feature Sam Cleare