At least 100 students at Dallas' South Oak Cliff High School staged a demonstration Monday to protest disrepair at the 63-year-old building.
Students claim buckets to catch leaks from the ceiling make their school unhealthy and unsafe.
Senior football player Robert Hampton said visiting suburban schools allowed him to compare the poor condition of his campus.
“They have better locker rooms, better classrooms, better environments all around,” Hampton said.
Senior baseball player Dejuan Queen said it casts a bad image on the neighborhood.
“Going to a school like this makes you rethink about growing up in an area,” Queen said. “It’s all we got here.”
Photos and video from inside the building over the past several months show the buckets on the floor and large sections of ceiling tile missing.
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In October, officials confirmed water from heavy rain leaked through the roof. Heating and air conditioning work unfinished at that time, was still not completed Monday.
Dallas Independent School District Spokesman Andre Riley said ceiling tiles remain down to allow access for final city inspections on the heating and air conditioning work.
“It’s not an ideal environment, and we want what’s best for our students. However, in order to be sure the inspections are completed properly, it’s best to leave those tiles down,” Riley said. “Right now this building is safe. It’s a healthy school environment. I admit it’s not ideal aesthetically, and we’re working on that.”
South Oak Cliff was due to receive around $11 million for upgrades including a new roof from a $1.6 billion dollar Dallas ISD school improvement bond referendum approved by voters last month.
Football team quarterback David Johnson said South Oak Cliff deserves the same replacement building other Dallas schools are getting.
“Students have to learn in this environment. We want a new school. That’s what we deserve. South Oak Cliff has so much history. And Adamson, how does Adamson get a new school and we don’t? We have way more history. No disrespect to Adamson, but South Oak Cliff holds a lot of history and we deserve the best for our community,” Johnson said.
Riley said Dallas schools have $4 billion dollars in needs and even the large bond referendum will not solve every problem.
“We value the input of our students and we realize right now what’s occurring in South Oak Cliff is not ideal. If we had our choice, we’d build a brand new school, but that’s not possible right now. But our students deserve the best we can do for them and right now, that’s completing this heating and cooling project,” he said.
Riley said the final heating and cooling inspections could be performed this week and the building should be in much better shape after that.
