Aircon woes sending students out of school

Instead of cool air comforting students inside their classrooms at Kagman Elementary School, the facilities’ airconditioning units have been spewing out fiberglass particles and dust.

This despite the school replacing the 150 or so airconditioning system filters and repairing fiberglass insulation that had peeled away, which were recommended a month ago and were expected to alleviate the problem.

The school’s principal, Ignacia Demapan, revealed that since the airconditioning woes started, the school has experienced constant absenteeism of students due to illness. She also said that a number of children have also complained of headaches, dizziness, eyes hurting, skin itchiness and shortness of breath.

The situation has become so grave that it was decided during a recent PTA meeting that the fiberglass particles and dust samples from the classrooms be sent off-island to laboratories for analysis.

It was also decided that the school seek the assistance of experts from off-island who would be requested to come to the CNMI and recommend how to correct the deficiencies in the airconditioning system.

During the meeting, attended by PTA Chair Tom Pangelinan, it was also determined that it is not in the best interest of the education of the students to close the school. Instead, teachers are considering bringing electric fans to the school and having the airconditioning system turned off until it is properly fixed.

To find out whether the fiberglass particles and dust spewed out by the deficient airconditioning units are indeed the cause of the constant absenteeism of students and the reason for the myriad of health complaints they have been experiencing, a number of teachers have volunteered to act as lab rats in experiments suggested by a local physician and Joe Torres of Torres Refrigeration.

For his part, Mr. Pangelinan said, “I will not allow the problem with the airconditioning to be dismissed or covered-up because nothing is more important than the health and safety of our students and their teachers.”

Since the airconditioning problem surfaced, Kagman Elementary School has experienced the highest rate of student absenteeism in the CNMI and that the numbers are more than double than that of the first quarter.