Parents call on TCDSB to fix intense heat in Etobicoke school
CBC
With sweltering heat set to descend upon southern Ontario this week, parents with kids attending an Etobicoke school without air conditioning are pleading with the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to do something about it.
Ava Janeiro attends St. Gregory Catholic School and knows firsthand just how hot her third-floor classroom can get — especially because the school's windows only open about three inches.
"It's hard to breathe. My head starts to hurt, I feel nauseous, my stomach hurts and I get rashes all over my body," she told CBC News. "It's really scary."
It's gotten so bad that Ava was recently diagnosed with heat exhaustion, said her mother, Rachel Janeiro.
"We've taken her to the doctor, and we've been advised that if she gets any of these symptoms again, to take her straight to [emergency]," Janeiro said.
According to a report presented to the TCDSB in 2022, on a 25 C day, temperatures on the third floor of the building reached 28 C.
It's set to be much hotter than that in Toronto this week. The city is under a heat warning with daytime highs expected to reach between 30 C and 35 C, with it feeling more like 40 or 45 with the humidity.
Parents have created an online petition asking the school board to step in, which currently has just over 750 signatures.
"Really we just want to send our kids to school and not worry about them suffering heat exhaustion," Janeiro said.
In a statement sent to CBC News, the TCDSB said it recognizes climate change is leading to more extreme weather, and in turn increasing the number of hot days happening while school is still in session.
"To mitigate some of these impacts, TCDSB has made it a priority to ensure that schools in our system have at least one cooling area in their facility where staff can rotate classrooms to ensure students receive some relief from the warmer temperatures," the board said.
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In St. Gregory's case, that's the library — but parents say it only has a capacity of about 80 people, with a student population that tops 700, plus teachers.
The board also said in its statement that air conditioning is not possible within current provincial education ministry benchmarks for new schools, and that annual renewal funding provided to boards isn't enough to allow for retrofitting of schools that don't have air conditioning as it is spread among "many different competing priorities."
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