Greenie School Closed Because of Heat

I attended many a school with no air conditioning during the hot, smoggy days of my youth, but that never shut us down. We'd just wet down paper towels to wipe our fevered brows and the learning went on.

In Detroit, an school which won some type of greenie award for environmental design was closed yesterday...due to heat:

The Detroit School of Arts and the International Academy of Detroit closed about 10 a.m. today because heat that hovered in the 90s made it too hot inside for students, Detroit Public Schools spokeswoman Mattie Majors told The News.

[...]

The $121 million Detroit School of Arts earlier this year won an award from the U.S. Green Building Council for the school's energy and environmental design. It was the first building in the city to win the award.

The council lauded the school for using energy-saving designs and equipment. Examples include trees to provide shade, energy-efficient windows and a highly reflective roof surface. Energy costs dropped 20 percent as a result of the design. But today's heat and humidity proved too much for all of the schools.

"There is too much heat," Majors said. "They can't bring it down fast enough."

Clearly money well spent. Next time how about some good old ozone destroying chloro-florocarbons running through an electron gobbling air conditioning unit. At least the kids will get to learn something.