Students Walk Out As Broken Air Conditioner Leaves Olivehurst Classrooms Sweltering
OLIVEHURST (CBS13) — Dozens of high-school students in Olivehurst are protesting hot classroom conditions after a failed air-conditioning unit has left them sweltering.
There have been complaints of nausea, difficulty breathing and headaches from stifling classroom temperatures.
The school district says the problems won't be fixed until after the hot summer season is over, meaning students will likely have more weeks, if not months, of feeling the heat in the classroom.
RELATED: Broken Lindhurst High School Air Conditioners Likely Won't Be Fully Online Until Spring
Dozens of Lindhurst High School students waved protest signs and chanted in frustration over the conditions in their classrooms.
"It's hot and musty, and sweaty and stinky," said senior Sonun Dhillon.
School officials say the unit that supplies air conditioning to 12 classrooms is broken.
Principal Bob Eckardt is hearing complaints from students, teachers and parents.
"To understand their frustration, I absolutely get it," he said. "Over the summer, one of those chillers had a catastrophic failure."
Eckardt says once he told district officials about the broken unit, he was informed the red tape would mean it would be months before it was fixed.
"In California, anything that has to do with schools takes a long time...schools and hospitals," he said.
Just to get the new unit on the roof will take an army of professionals.
"First it has to be engineered and then you have to go through your architects and everything after that. [It] is a very lengthy process," he said.
In the meantime, he says staff members are trying to keep students and teachers cool by bringing in extra fans and water, but students say it's not enough. Some students say they were told by an athletic coach if they walk out of class because of the heat, they risk not playing on the field.
Eckardt says it's a California Interscholastic Federation rule, and there is an appeals process.
"If you do cut class during the week of an athletic event, you are ineligible to participate in an athletic event. Those are CIF regulations," he said.
The school's principal says he hopes to have the air conditioning fixed by the winter break.
