School Disrepair: ‘No One Drinks the Tap Water, Because It’s Yellow’

Whether from age, ordinary wear and tear or residual damage from the Northridge earthquake, many, if not most, Los Angeles schools urgently require major refurbishing. On April 8, voters will have a second chance to pass Proposition BB, a $2.4-billion bond measure that barely missed the necessary 66.6% approval in November. “BB” is supported by Mayor Richard Riordan, challenger Tom Hayden and others across the political spectrum, but no one is more aware of how desperately repairs are needed than the students themselves. JIM BLAIR spoke with students from high schools identified by the Los Angeles Unified School District as among those most in need of attention.

OMAR HERNANDEZ: Senior, Venice High School

The plumbing on our campus needs to be taken care of. No one drinks the tap water, because it’s yellow. It’s kind of pointless when we wash our hands. You look at the urinals and they’re yellow even after they’ve been cleaned.

There are breaks and leaks in our lawn sprinkler system [and it’s] constantly overflowing with water.

When it rains, we have leaks. Some classes have to switch rooms or put off certain lessons. The window sills leak. Our storm drains don’t work very well. In the auditorium, tiles are constantly falling off the ceiling.

I shouldn’t have to worry about something coming down and hitting me on the head. I’m sure other students feel the same way. It’s kind of scary when you’re just walking by and something [falls] and misses you by a couple of inches.

The floor tiles are not in very good shape and people trip over them; pieces are missing. We don’t have air conditioning. The rooms get awfully hot and it’s really very hard to concentrate.

The students do what we can. Our horticulture class beautifies the campus whenever we get plants donated. We all do our part in cleaning up the campus. The school is now paying a couple of students to clean up the bathrooms. If the school would ask us for more help I’m pretty sure many students would come, but much of what’s needed isn’t something students can do.

GREG GOODFRIED: Senior, Birmingham High School, Van Nuys

The classrooms aren’t air conditioned, which is a big problem. In the summer it reaches 100 degrees. The kids are all hot, everyone’s frustrated and you can’t take water into the classrooms. It’s tough to learn when everyone’s uncomfortable.

The ceilings in a lot of classrooms are old and stained. The walls in the auditorium are torn up. The sidewalks are cracked. In a lot of the school buildings old paint is flaking off and the walls are cracked. The school could be nice, but it’s generally an ugly place.

The air conditioning alone would make a huge difference. You can learn so much more when you’re comfortable.

VIRGINIA CARVILLE: Senior, University High School, West Los Angeles

I was looking at an old yearbook and I wish it could be what it once was--a beautiful campus. But it’s hard to do that when no one is willing to pay for it. It’s a beautiful school compared to other schools, but it’s so deteriorated.

One year the bathrooms in the east gym overflowed and the smell was so bad you couldn’t believe it. Three times this year the girls’ bathroom has overflowed and there was sewage everywhere. We have cockroaches and little mice all over the place. The sinks are horrible, the mirrors all scratched. In the photo room, the roof leaks. Ceiling tiles are always falling. Our leadership classroom is in the basement and when it rains it floods and they have to vacuum up the water.

Teachers are trying as hard as they can, but they don’t have the right materials or resources. Some of our books are really old--they’re talking about communism. We have new drama books, but something that you need like economics and government, we’re learning from books that were printed in 1982.

We have a thing called “Sparkle Saturday” so everyone who has detention can go and clean up [the school], but it’s back to normal when we don’t have students who don’t need any detention hours off.

I think a lot of voters are looking at it like, “I’m not in school and I don’t have any children who are in school, why should I help?” But we’re one of the largest states in the Union and our schools are not up to date with other parts of the country or the world. This is a very rich state and something to be embarrassed about.

OLIVER VALCORZA: Junior, John Marshall High School, Los Angeles

There are a lot of defects in the classroom ceilings. It’s hard to concentrate when raindrops are falling inside a classroom. Your papers get wet. Some of the floors are cracked. Some of the physical education equipment is not safe for students to use. The faucets in some of the restrooms aren’t working. Some of the toilets don’t flush--which is disgusting if somebody used them. Sometimes water overflows. It’s extremely bad. If you need to go the restroom and you can’t because the toilets aren’t functioning you can’t concentrate on your studies.

Investing in education will definitely benefit the city. It’s an investment in the future, because today’s students are the taxpayers of tomorrow--if we spend our resources wisely. If we have poorly educated students, society in the future will lack a strong base.

I guess some adults think kids don’t care about school, but there are a lot of active students that do care. If we give them the benefit of investing tax dollars in improving our schools, it will benefit us and society for years to come.

AUTUMN STEWART: Senior, Dorsey High School

We need painting for the inside and outside of the building, upgraded bathrooms and better security grates and gates. We also need new floor and ceiling tiles in several classrooms. Basically, general repair.

The learning starts with you, but it’s a bad learning environment. Everyone wants to go to a school that’s nicely painted. Everybody wants a nice school to come to, to be proud of.

We have a program right now called “Painting Dorsey Beautiful.” Parents and students come as a community service and paint [some part of] the building every Saturday, but they can’t do all of it.

CARINA ARMENTA: Senior, San Fernando High School

There’s an auditorium here which the graduating senior class has never gone into because it hasn’t been repaired since the Northridge earthquake. The lighting in the classrooms is obsolete. The playground needs resurfacing and the concrete sidewalks have deteriorated where tree roots have grown underneath them.

Tiles on the wall are falling off. We need to paint the classrooms. The school intercom is not working--for safety and emergency purposes we need a new one. We need a security alarm system, networking for computers and we need to replace our folding bleachers. The exterior stucco needs to be repaired.

When it’s raining you have to be moved around in classrooms so water doesn’t fall on your head. The environment is ugly and you can’t really concentrate when you feel unsafe because there’s asbestos in the floor tiles that are [coming up]. Why do we have to work in these conditions?

We have great government teachers who emphasize you must vote--get out in the political process. A lot of us have worked on campaigns like the presidential campaign in November and with the different propositions that face the community and students.

[We tell voters] that students are going to be the future and they need to work under conditions where they feel comfortable and safe.

It’s not an overwhelming expense over the lifetime of the bond.

Every year we have a campus beautification. Last year we gatherered about 3,000 people--volunteers, parents, students, faculty and members of the community. It was amazing to see the unity and dedication that one community has for its school. We do the same thing every year.