Wintry West
It’s finally spring. That means no more heavy coats and jackets. Short-sleeves and flip-flops. Except inside Millard West where the air conditioning makes wearing summer clothes almost unbearable.
“The lunchroom is the worst,” said sophomore Lauren Heisterkamp.
At lunch, students huddle together and cross their arms for warmth. Our fingers and toes nearly turn purple from the cold. Everybody has perpetual goosebumps!
“You come outside and want to wear shorts and a t-shirt, but you come inside and you wear a hoodie to be comfortable in the school,” said senior Lauren Metzler.
Kids who wear summer clothes and forget a jacket (because it is almost eighty outside) must pay the price all day long at school. It’s not just one classroom or one wing, it’s the entire building!
“I have to wear a sweatshirt and it’s a nuisance,” said sophomore Dylan Chamberlain.
Maybe students in gym appreciate the cool temperatures, but almost everyone else has to sit still in the cold all day. The worst is when a student’s desk is situated right below a vent that never stops blowing.
“It’s like a meat locker,” said junior Emily Huddleston.
Can’t the school regulate the temperature in different parts of the building? We have Smart Board technology, but can’t control the AC?
“There are days when I think it’s cold. It’s very inconsistent in my room,” said history teacher Mark Klein.
“It definitely varies from place to place,” said French teacher Anne Johnson.
The school could save a lot of money just by turning the air conditioning down. Millard West could even turn the AC off these warm spring days.
So why does Frosty still live in Millard West?
Student speculation suggests that the icy temperatures are meant to keep students focused in class and to prevent them from falling asleep. However, the extreme cold distracts students instead. Their minds are consumed with the thought of stepping outside, into the heat! Students sit shivering, regretting the decision to leave their jackets home on that sunny, warm day, instead of focusing on the lesson at hand.
After school, students walk into the sunlight wearing layers of clothes. And as soon as students get into their stuffy cars, they start sweating!
“I get goosebumps just sitting in class. I sprint to the bathroom to keep warm,” said sophomore Robert Harvey.
Another idea is that frosty temperatures force kids to wear more modest clothing. This may be true, but can’t the school regulate this some other way? Any student wearing less than jeans, a long sleeved hoodie, and closed-toe shoes suffers under these chilly conditions. And there still seem to be persistent people who wear inappropriate clothes anyway.
There seems to be no good reason to keep the arctic AC on. So why not lose the tundra temperatures?
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