281 Problems Reported. Zero Responses.
281 environmental complaints. Zero responses. Philadelphia School District schools are still closing for the same issues three years later.
I ran into a report last week that pissed me off. It was from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, published in May 2021, and I hadn’t seen it surface in any of the recent coverage of Philadelphia’s school facilities crisis.
Two hundred and eighty-one.
That’s how many environmental complaints teachers and staff filed with the School District of Philadelphia in the two months after schools reopened in March 2021. Asbestos, lead paint, mold, broken ventilation. The kind of problems that make you wonder what’s in the air your children are breathing while they’re supposed to be learning long division.
Zero.
That’s how many the district responded to. Not “we’re looking into it.” Not “we’ve logged your complaint.” Not “the facilities team will be in touch.” Zero. The teachers had categorized 5% of the complaints as “immediate” — meaning the district had 24 hours to respond. 22% as “urgent” — 72 hours. 16% as “important” — 14 days. The district answered none of them. Chalkbeat confirmed the same numbers at the time.
I keep thinking about the 281, because three years later, the district is still doing the same thing — except now the schools are actually closing.
Frankford High School was shut for the entire 2023-2024 school year because of damaged asbestos in a 108-year-old building. Mitchell Elementary was closed in April 2023 after asbestos was found in the plaster. By the time the dust settled, six schools had been closed in 2022-2023 — Building 21, Mastery Simon Gratz, Frankford, C.W. Henry, Mitchell, Universal Vare. Another, Southwark Elementary, was the first to close in 2023-2024. The Inquirer has the full list.
The 281 complaints weren’t noise. They were the early warning system. The district ignored them, and the asbestos is still winning.
When a landlord did this, you’d call the housing authority. When a factory did this, you’d call the EPA. When a school district does it, you get a press release about “ongoing efforts” and a request for patience. Two hundred and eighty-one teachers tried to tell someone their kids were breathing bad air. The district answered none of them. The lesson isn’t that the district is underfunded. The lesson is that the district knows it doesn’t have to answer to anyone.