Editor:
(Originally sent to the school principal, school board and other elected officials)
I don’t often write to principals and elected officials. I mostly trust that you’re all doing your jobs to the best of your abilities and tending to the most pressing needs of the communities you serve.
So let’s talk about high school foods class.
We have a 16-year-old currently enrolled in grade 10 at NWSS.
He messaged us during his third block (one day last week) to say he was feeling nauseous and lightheaded. He was in his Foods 12 class where apparently they were using the ovens. Using ovens in foods class shouldn’t cause heat stroke — except it’s hot outside, and NWSS, as we all know, does not have adequate AC to accommodate these hotter days.
This is unfortunate on many counts:
1. Foods is one of our son’s favourite classes. He loves showing off his knife skills and showing up his older peers in class. He’s been selected for the chef apprenticeship program next year. So he’s definitely not flaking out or looking for an excuse not to be there. If he was feeling well enough, he would have absolutely stayed, especially because it’s followed by Japanese 10 (another favourite).
2. He loves food so much that he already has a job working in the kitchen at the Paddlewheeler Pub, where they have begun training him. However, he’ll have to phone in sick for his shift tonight — which is making him feel extra anxious about letting his fellow kitchen mates down.
3. The climate crisis is real, and from what I understand we are beginning a five-year cycle of warmer temperatures — so this problem is only going to get worse, and our children won’t be able to fix it for us if they have to miss school due to the heat stroke they got from going to school.
I’m being pointedly flippant, of course, and I understand this is anecdotal.
But there are two things I hope we all agree on: school must be a safe environment for everyone, and we need to take stronger action to address our changing climate.
I hope the necessary retrofitting is given high priority and the support it needs from all levels of government.
Some serious, meaningful action on climate change would also be, well … adequate.
Thanks for reading.
Peter Jorgensen
📢 SOUND OFF: Are you a student, or do you have a child in New Westminster schools? Have you been affected by the hot weather in school? What should be done about it? Let us know — send us a letter.
