Youngstown schools fail again — this time in ensuring safety

Given the many serious and striking bruises to the academic and fiscal face of the Youngstown City School District, the last thing its public image needs is another black eye.

But that’s exactly what it received — deservedly so — this month when reports surfaced about extreme negligence of serious fire- safety violations at the $16 million 7-year-old East High School on Bennington Avenue.

Youngtown’s chief fire inspector told school leaders Sept. 2 that several fire-code violations at East High School made the building “a fire hazard,” and it would be ordered closed if significant repairs weren’t made quickly. The most serious violations involved 14 inoperable fire doors that, when functioning properly, control the spread of flames.

Thankfully, the draconian threat produced prompt repairs that first week of classes. Nonetheless, the prolonged inattention to the life-threatening violations to hundreds of students and staff in the building is indefensible. It raises serious questions about the caliber of maintenance and oversight of the relatively new physical plant of the city school district.

Fire officials say the specific code violations had been reported to school leaders months ago and that the problem has existed at East for years. In a letter to school district officials, Marcia Harris, chief fire inspector, minced no words: “Without working fire doors, the whole building could be burned down.”

Harry Evans, the school district’s business manager, acknowledged the neglect but attempted to explain it away thusly: “This flew under the radar during the summer.”

That flimsy cover-your-derriere explanation is no excuse for such irresponsibility. In fact, there is no acceptable excuse for allowing fire hazards to linger through the summer and into the start of this school year. The very least the troubled school district should guarantee to its students and staff is that its facilities are not potential fire traps.

OTHER QUESTIONS

The incident also raises other troubling questions. For one, is the city school district investing sufficient resources to school security day and night? Evans attributes the violations to student vandalism of the doors. Is there adequate surveillance to catch culprits, mete out punishment and provide extra security at known targets? Are those found guilty being punished severely?

What about the buildings throughout the district, most of which were constructed within the past 15 years under the massive $182 million Ohio School Facilities Commission program to rebuild or renovate 14 district buildings. If such dangers are allowed to linger at the city’s largest high school, one must wonder about the proper level of oversight at all schools in the city. Given the newness of the buildings, the vandalism also raises question s on the caliber of management of construction standards and maintenance.

As a result, we’d urge city Fire Department inspectors in the immediate future to keep close watch over all district buildings and use the same stern tactics to pressure school leaders into action. We’d also hope the district’s board of education recognizes the severity of the dangers and conducts an investigation as to how the violations were allowed to fester for so long. If heads must roll at the end of such an investigation, let them roll.

After all, parents of city school students deserve better from the district they support with their hard-earned tax dollars. Students deserve maximum security when they’re in the classroom. While it remains disheartening that city schools continue to fail academically, it is disgusting that school leaders have failed to invest sufficient time, energy and compassion to ensure students and staff do not become victims of callous and thoughtless lethargy.