Air Conditioner Protest Project

Dear Moanalua High School, 

 We propose that air conditioners are needed in all classrooms on the Moanalua High School campus. With air conditioners in all classrooms, students will have better concentration while doing their school work. Studies show that concentration and cognitive abilities decline substantially after a room reaches 77 or 78 degrees according to the New York Times. With Hawaii’s temperature ranging around low 70 degrees fahrenheit and high 80 degrees fahrenheit in Honolulu according to gohawaii.com. Though some days during winter and certain rainy days air conditioners are not needed because temperatures are already in perfect learning temperature. However the rest of the school year students have to go through the school day in uncomfortable overheated classrooms. “It has been found by research that in the comfort conditions the working capacity of the human beings increases. If the room temperature is very high, not all the heat from the body is released and the person feels uncomfortable from deep within that causes irritation of mind and lack of concentration.” according to the Bright Hub Engineering. Some students on campus might have allergic reactions to dust or pollen. Also with our global warming issues our earth’s atmosphere has a lot pollution. The air conditioners have filters built into them, so they filter out the unclean air so the students in the classroom will breath in clean air. “One in five Americans spends at least part of the day in a school building. In February 1995, the U.S. Government Accounting Office released a survey indicating that more than half of U.S. schools have deficiencies that adversely affect indoor air quality. In addition to triggering asthma attacks in susceptible children, poor indoor air quality causes drowsiness, inability to concentrate, and lethargy. Whether poor air quality forces students to actually miss class because of asthma attack, or whether it simply reduces attentiveness, learning is compromised.” said the http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/articlesandpapers/lyons.html. Our plan of action is to spread the word about our protest through flyers and social media. This protest will be in front of the our administration building because this is where the principal and top administrators have their offices.  This protest will be peaceful because we want to be civil people in our community. Also we feel that we don’t need to be destructive in order to get our point across. The protest signs will have slogans and facts about air conditioners and the positives of having them. Due to cost and the budget that our school has from the Department of Education (DOE) “roughly $1.4 billion” we understand the difficulty of adding something like this in your budget. However our group would really appreciate that you understand why we are going to protest. We are standing up for the students at the Moanalua High School so we can make a change in the our learning environment. 

 Sincerely, 

Jessica Kalen, Erin Kobayashi, and Skyler Yamamoto 

Grade 10