Schools to Close 2 Hours Early Thursday

Due to , schools will close two hours early again Thursday, Baltimore County Public Schools officials announced.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Baltimore County until Thursday at 8 p.m. Temperatures are expected to linger in the upper 80s through Friday. The heat index value could reach 102.

According to a list compiled by County Councilman David Marks, roughly 80 schools across the county do not offer complete air conditioning.

In a Patch published Tuesday, Laurie Taylor-Mitchell encouraged parents to fight for improved climate control in schools.

Taylor-Mitchell wrote:

Heat is, of course, a "seasonal issue," although research shows that it affects children and teachers for many weeks in the late spring and fall. Children come home drenched in sweat, exhausted, with severe headaches, nausea and vomiting (all of which occur at Ridgely and are almost certainly happening at other hot schools), but these memories fade away until the next crisis.

Some readers, however, disagreed.

One commenter, Donna, wrote:

[Every] spring/summer, we were lucky if we had a classroom that had a fan. To the best of my recollection, no one ever fainted from the heat. Yes, it got horribly hot, but it's one of the many things that taught us to deal with adversity, which is something that many young people today aren't learning. They will survive, even if they have to tolerate less than optimum conditions.

What do you think about the lack of air conditioning in county schools?