The sight of Baltimore city students huddling in coats in freezing classrooms amid bitter cold temperatures touched a nerve across the country yesterday, with Republican Governor Larry Hogan dismissing talk of providing aid for repairs, Democratic gubernatorial challengers denouncing him for it and the teachers’ union calling for all schools to be closed until the buildings can be made habitable.
“The older children will walk out when it’s this cold – but it’s the little children who have to sit there in their coats and hats and gloves and have no way to leave that I’m worried about,” said Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teacher’s Union (BTU).
After teachers complained yesterday of classrooms with temperatures in the 30s and 40s, the union called on schools CEO Sonja Santelises to close all schools so that heating issues could be the assessed and repaired.
