And the Post article, which is much better than the WJLA article.


"Anacostia Principal Eric Fraser emailed staff just after 7 a.m. Wednesday to inform them of the faulty plumbing. He said that the water flow stopped Tuesday evening and that city agencies were working to fix the problem. Staff and students, Fraser wrote, could use the restroom facilities at Kramer Middle School, about two blocks away.

“We have not yet confirmed alternative arrangements for the meantime but have reached out to Kramer MS who we assume will provide us access to their staff restrooms should anyone need one between now and then,” according to the email obtained by The Washington Post.

Although some bathrooms reopened near the start of the school day — the morning bell rings at 8:45 a.m. — teachers said they were dismayed that classes began with not all restrooms functioning. About 40 percent of the student body requires special education services, with some in wheelchairs and requiring assistance to use the restroom.

Teachers and students said that if the school was in another part of the city, the problems would have been addressed more quickly, parents would have been informed beforehand and classes would have been canceled.

“If it was any other school in the District, they would have closed school,” said Tamone Carter, a junior. “That’s unsanitary.”

I've taught at four different schools. Three of them had a rat or mouse infestation at some point. One of my classrooms had five mouse traps under the air/heat units that had to be changed each day. Every Monday, we'd clean up rat droppings before the kids got there. DGS was slow to do anything. Some days we had heat, and some days the kids wore coats all day long. Sadly, you get used to these things as a teacher in the city.

Anonymous wrote:Well, according to the news, the pipes burst at the end of one day and city workers were there throughout the night until it was repaired the next day. Nevertheless, there was a "walkout" because it was not repaired sooner. Oh, the injustice! The inequity!!

They should have cancelled school. Or a 2-hour delay.

Well, according to the news, the pipes burst at the end of one day and city workers were there throughout the night until it was repaired the next day. Nevertheless, there was a "walkout" because it was not repaired sooner. Oh, the injustice! The inequity!!

Anonymous wrote:Any thoughts on what non-Anacostia HS families can do to help bring notice to this issue and bring resolution?

+1

This is outrageous. What can I do, as a DC taxpayer, to bring more attention to this issue and to get a safe and clean school for the students and teachers?

WJLA article here:

http://wjla.com/news/local/teachers-walk-out-of-anacostia-high-school-to-protest-lack-of-running-water-restrooms

Pipe burst Tuesday; completely repaired by Wednesday noon. I think the question is whether they should have delayed/cancelled school until the repairs were made.

DCPS statement:
"On Tuesday evening, the water at Anacostia High School went out. Repair staff worked throughout the evening and night to identify the issue and make necessary repairs. By 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, bathrooms began reopening. Repairs continued throughout the morning, and by 10:15 a.m., all repairs were completed. The Department of General Services is assessing all DCPS facilities system-wide to proactively address any similar issues."

Any thoughts on what non-Anacostia HS families can do to help bring notice to this issue and bring resolution?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does this happen in a city as wealthy and liberal as DC?

This is shameful.

What does political leanings have to do with it? Save that nonsense for Yahoo comments. However, since you initiated, tell me about the state of schools in KY, AR, MS, AL, LA, etc? How are the conditions of schools in the in the Republican led states?

It has everything to do with this.

When the entire political identity of the sole political ideology of the city is racial equality and the government taking care of the poor, it is abhorrent that 5hings like this happen in the poorest blackest neighborhood and their children when it would never, ever happen in the neighborhoods of the rich liberal elite.

None of those red states ever claim the mantle of moral superiority on racial issues, government largess or education.

Politics has everything to do with this failure.

Anonymous wrote:EOTR parents, including me, know that this would never have happened WOTP.

I want to add something to this.

When posts happen, like the integration post, someone always compares UMC unwillingness to want to go to a low ranking school in their neighborhood to families east of the river trying to get out of their lower ranking school.

It's not the same. Families over here aren't just trying to get away from low test scores. We KNOW our buildings aren't taken care of the same as schools WOTP or even west of the river. Maybe it's because we don't have a huge parent coalition to make sure things like what happened at Anacostia don't happen, I don't know. Regardless, it's true.

And before I am jumped on I want to point out two things

1) I don't care where your child goes to school. I am not arguing that you should stay in your low performing schools. I just wanted to point out that the situations aren't the same

2) I have experienced this first hand. There was an abandoned car right outside of my daughter's school for over 2 months. The windows were bashed out and there were holes in the side of the car. Rats and mice started to take it over. It took OVER TWO months to get the car removed. That never would have happened if our school was located on the Hill or honestly, any part of the other side of the river.

DGS is a joke. The council should ask for a list of work orders and see when they all got “resolved”.

Anonymous wrote:How does this happen in a city as wealthy and liberal as DC?

This is shameful.

What does political leanings have to do with it? Save that nonsense for Yahoo comments. However, since you initiated, tell me about the state of schools in KY, AR, MS, AL, LA, etc? How are the conditions of schools in the in the Republican led states?

Is there a stack of requests to DGS from school admin reporting maintenance requests?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a building so recently renovated having these issues?

Yeah this is crazy. The outside of the building is beautiful.

DC corruption. What else?
Why not stage a city-wide protest? Certainly every school kid in town should care about something as OUTRAGEOUS as this.

EOTR parents, including me, know that this would never have happened WOTP.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not impressed with her at all. This would not happen at the school that my child attends, so why should it happen to these kids and staff members. They knew the night before that the building was without working water, however they still let school open on time as if everything was okay.

This is crazy. I am glad that the students and staff members walked out.

Worse telling them to walk 3 blocks to a bathroom! On another thread, we have folks talking about "integrating" schools and WOTP won't cross the great divide to the East ...