There’s more trouble for aging South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas.
Dallas ISD responded to a maintenance emergency over the holiday weekend when the school’s new air conditioning system reportedly broke down, causing some flooding.
The district is now trying to dry out the school before students return to class on Tuesday.
Parents say they’re fed up with this years-long battle to get the district to listen to their concerns and ideas to address the problems.
“He just told me ‘mommy, this is horrible. What do I do,” said Teresa Muhammad.
Her freshman son has joined in what’s become a familiar tradition at South Oak Cliff High School.
Like other students, the 14-year-old started snapping pictures of his dilapidated school building.
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“He says it’s hot,” she said. “He says that there are rats.”
Sometime over the weekend, the building’s new air conditioning system reportedly broke down, flooding some classrooms and hallways.
An HVAC machine could be seen inside the school on Sunday.
There were several rugs hung to dry outside.
“Definitely tired,” said Reverend Maxie Johnson.
Johnson is the president of the school’s parent coalition.
He says students and parents are sick of the patchwork repairs being done.
He adds that the district’s $52 million allocated to make renovations sometime this summer, while the students are still in class, is unacceptable.
“Care about our children,” he said. “We don’t want our children in this school while there's major renovations taking place it's unsafe.”
Muhammad says she wants her son and his classmates to be relocated to one of several schools with enough room.
“What we want is for the children to be kept together but relocated while construction goes on,” she said.
The coalition of parents will meet next week, according to Johnson.
NBC 5 reached out to Dallas ISD repeatedly over the holiday weekend.
A district spokeswoman said more information would be released on Monday, but it appears that the incident will not impact classes on Tuesday.
