How Cold Can an Ohio Classroom Get?

Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP/Getty Images

When I was a kid, we walked to school through 10-foot snowdrifts and sat in unheated classrooms with freezing wind whipping through cracks in the log cabin walls. And we learned, dammit.

But kids these days: Turn off the heat for a single day and you’ll never hear the end of it.

That’s what’s happening in Xenia in western Ohio where one day without heat at a middle school has parents threatening to keep their children out of school. One parent told the local TV station  ”My daughter will not be going to school tomorrow unless the issue is fixed.”

Preschool classes are also held at the middle school. Another parent said: “My child told me he had two coats on and was still cold and he has health issues so I would have preferred that my child wasn’t sitting [in] a school without heat.”

And in central Ohio, the Eastland and Fairfield career centers are closed today because of a lack of heat.

Ohio leaves decisions about whether it’s too cool for school up to local districts. Beyond requiring that school buildings are “approved for children to be in,” the state stays out of it, an Ohio Department of Education spokesperson said. Parents who are concerned about their schools’ classroom temperature can contact the local zoning commission for the county or city, he said.

However, many Ohio teachers’ union contracts specify acceptable classroom temperatures. In Cleveland, for example, temperatures are supposed to be between 60 and 90 degrees.

Ninety degrees? Pshaw. When I was a kid…