Got up this morning for my daily call to Puerto Rico and my friend Chef Bobby read me the following headline news story.
Escuelas sin luz, sin teléfono ni comida a días del inicio de clases
“Schools without electricity, without telephone or food days before the beginning of classes”
Bobby just posted a series of tweets about this— which need to be retweeted:
As Bobby points out It hasn’t reached the U.S. mainstream media apparently — since they are still posting PREPA lies about only 25 customers on the entire island without power.
A recap: The schools listed without power are all over the island and in San Juan
To make a bad situation even worse — many of the schools which were abandoned since they closed — are overrun with rats and termites.
How does this fit in with the plans to abandon many public schools and switch to charters? I’d like to hear some answers.
The article has a long and detailed list of problems by educational regions — I’m citing just a few of the low-lights from the article and Bobby’s tweets:
Fidel López Colón de Bayamón School is without an electrical system
Abelardo Díaz School in Cayey, where it is specified that there is no electricity,internet and telephone service
In the municipality of Rio Grande, in the Edmundo Valle school, there are seven rooms with leaks, four unusable toilets, four water sources that do not work and mention a terrible plague of rats. While the Medrazo School in Carolina does not have electric power service and they specify that "the heat is unbearable”
San Juan —School Villa Granada of the capital stands out, because the halls do not have electricity and it requires repairs in the bathrooms and in all the infrastructure
Telemundo had a news video report of a school in Vega Baja
Escuela iniciará sus clases sin luz
English translation:
School will begin its classes without light
If these situations are not corrected, they will cause chaos at the beginning of the school year."
They interview parents who are very disturbed. Who can blame them.
Please get the word out.