While Floridians have been staying home because of two thirds of an inch of snow, kids in Baltimore have been forced to attend class in forty-degree buildings. As a "bomb cyclone" sweeps the Northeast, the city has been experiencing below-freezing weather, and many of its schools have suffered plumbing problems and remained without heat.
"She actually said she couldn't feel her feet at one point," local mom Nikki Massie told NPR of her daughter, who goes to Baltimore City College High School. "I texted her back and said are you joking? She says — no." Dennis Morgan, a senior at Frederick Douglass High School, said he went to school with "four shirts, two hoodies, and a jacket" on. Kindergartners and pre-kindergartners have been complaining about frostbite and hypothermia, Aaron Maybin, a former NFL quarterback who works at Matthew A. Henson Elementary, told The Baltimore Sun.
Finally, on Thursday, Baltimore's public schools closed, BuzzFeed reports, but it's unclear whether they did because of the temperatures or because of the storm—or if they have any long-term solution.
In the meantime, the community has banded together to help the students. Coppin State senior Samierra Jones, whose sister attends Baltimore's Western High School, created a GoFundMe page to get heaters for the schools and coats and gloves for the students. It's raised over $27,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
Some teachers have brought their own space heaters into classrooms, WJZ reports. The Baltimore Teachers Union asked schools to shut down until they get heat, and people will be rallying at a school board meeting Tuesday for more humane conditions.
