Letters to the Editor | Sept. 11, 2023

As a seventh grader at Charles W. Henry School, our first week back in the classroom was brutal. The reason has nothing to do with teachers or our workload. The issue was the heat. We had half days all last week, but it wasn’t enough. One day started out at 85 degrees in the classroom and just got hotter as the day went on. Air-conditioning is becoming something that isn’t just nice to have, but a necessity. The school district provides no form of cooling for our school. The only thing helping keep us cool are fans bought by parents and teachers. Global warming is affecting our learning more and more. A couple of years ago, we never had a half day because of the heat. Last year, it happened a few times. This year, our whole first week was half days!

There is no easy solution to this complicated problem. Some say the district should just add air-conditioning, but that isn’t as simple as it seems. Several of these school buildings are more than 100 years old and would have to be retrofitted to support a schoolwide cooling system, a project that could cost millions of dollars. We need to work to stop and undo the damage of global warming, but in the meantime, what is our solution for these schools? I hope the school district involves teachers, parents, and students in figuring out a solution.

Elliott Fackler, Philadelphia

. . .

On Wednesday around noon, when our family picked up our children from Charles W. Henry School because it does not have air-conditioning and the heat rose to dangerous levels, we did not yet know whether the next day’s pickup would be similarly early. The Philadelphia School District did not let us know until later that afternoon, giving parents and caregivers less than 24 hours to make alternative care arrangements for their children. This is unacceptable on many levels.

It is unconscionable that any school lacks air-conditioning and that our children are missing out on learning and basic relationship building with their teachers during these crucial first weeks of the school year. But given that we are dealing with tens of thousands of students and their families who do face the threat of overheated schools, the district should be able to provide at least 72 hours’ notice regarding heat-related early dismissals. For those who need to take off work, multiple last-minute cancellations mean at best a temporary loss of needed income, or at worst, permanent job loss. If parents have child care, it means unplanned extra expenses that could mean the difference between being able to make the rent or homelessness. For families whose kids go home unattended, quite possibly to homes without AC, it means risk of illness or injury.

This is not just an education issue — it is an employment issue, a housing issue, a public health issue, and a community issue. And while parents and caregivers of all races face these potential consequences, they fall hardest on hardest on Black, Latinx, and other families of color. Rain forecasts may be hit-or-miss beyond the next day, but temperature forecasts are fairly accurate at least four days in advance. Better notice is the bare minimum. Ensuring alternative after school care would be better, and having AC is long overdue.

Eric Tars, Philadelphia

I write to echo a recent letter to the editor in protest of the changes being made at the Mütter Museum. I am shocked and dismayed there has been so little public objection made to the dismantling of such a scientific and historical treasure. While I certainly endorse correcting medical errors of the past — exposing trends like phrenology and eugenics as misguided and racist inquiries into human development — I agree that it’s important to preserve evidence of these dreadful errors as warnings of the fallibility of our developing sciences. I think it’s also important, however, to answer more mundane questions about the human body which can only be uncovered by seeing genuine evidence of what we have done to ourselves, and particularly to women, in the past.

I worked briefly for the Annals of Internal Medicine, published by the College of Physicians, founders of the Mütter. I visited, with very little medical background other than good spelling, and was able to answer a question I’d wondered about for years: How exactly did foot binding in ancient China work? I was allowed to see a preserved bound foot. The disbelief at this cruel, most painful, debilitating brutality remains with me today. That this kind of thing was done out of love, for the child’s “best interests,” and persisted throughout history (think wasp waists and artificially flattened breasts), is important to understand — and the true enormity of these actions cannot be fully appreciated without physical evidence. Making the Mütter more (and I hate to use this term) “politically correct” destroys that opportunity, maybe forever.

Martha Sprowles, Langhorne

An Inquirer story on how SEPTA stands to lose $24 million spent on electric buses after the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy is a small vignette in the exhausting saga of SEPTA mismanagement. For years we have suffered through unfulfilled rail car and bus contracts, often arriving years late and with major malfunctions, safety issues, and expenditures far exceeding the original bids. Oh well, we’ll just ask for additional funding. How about when SEPTA spent millions revamping the Somerset elevated station, only to let it become an open-air restroom? Simple security measures could have prevented that debacle.

After a recent string of serious accidents, management decided it was time for some safety training — remarkable. Speaking of safety, SEPTA has a large and well compensated police force — it just never seems to be where it’s needed. Yet another failure of leadership. When ridership was down due to the pandemic, management relentlessly cried for more funding due to a decreased revenue stream. When ridership increased, the agency pleaded for more funding due to the increased demand. Will the day ever come when SEPTA has enough funding? Safe, clean, reliable mass transit is a necessity for a metropolitan area to thrive. That reasonable goal will never be met by the current leadership.

J. Savage, Philadelphia

The Park at Penn’s Landing: $360 million. The Chinatown Stitch project covering the Vine Street Expressway: $25 million to $30 million per block. This all sounds very nice. However, wouldn’t this money be better spent on rehabbing the deplorable and disgraceful condition of our school buildings? Parks are nice, but the secret to solving the crisis of poverty, poor employment prospects, and violence that plagues our city is education. And the first step in education is to provide an environment that isn’t itself an impediment to learning. The sad reality is that the choice is binary: schools or these park projects. There’s not enough money for both.

Raymond J. Gump, Southampton

Sexual violence is never the victim’s fault, and it is our duty as campus community members to step in when we see an unsafe situation unfolding. For many, intervening can be daunting. This is called the “bystander effect,” a theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help when others are present. All it takes is one upstander — someone who sees what happens and intervenes — to put a stop to unsafe behavior.

College students are at a high risk for sexual violence, especially during the fall semester. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network has found that more than 50% of college sexual assaults happen between August and November. If it is safe to do so, when you see a potentially dangerous situation unfolding this semester, provide a distraction, draw attention away from the situation, and get others involved for help and support. Your intervention could be lifesaving. If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual violence, the Network of Victim Assistance (NOVA) is there to help, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through its helpline, 800-675-6900. Text and chat lines are also available at novabucks.org.

Chloe Elias, Penn State student and NOVA intern, New Hope

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