Students at school slated for closure face yet another hurdle: no bathrooms
lumbing contractors were digging up Edgar P. Harney elementary school’s lush front lawn on Willow Street Tuesday afternoon while a portable toilet trailer sat on the school’s blacktop playground along busy Claiborne Avenue.
“The bathrooms aren’t working,” one of the workers told The Lens.
A clogged sewer line was initially to blame. But when contractors finally got beneath the Central City school they said they discovered a bigger problem — a dislodged drainage pipe.
“Now, we have to tunnel in to replace it,” he said from the lawn as another worker was standing in roughly a five-foot deep hole.
Orleans Parish School Board spokeswoman Ambria Washington confirmed a line had broken beneath the school. “While repairs are underway, the use of bathrooms inside the school needs to be limited at this time.”
The repairs may take a few days, she explained in an email.
“All repairs are expected to be complete this weekend,” she wrote. “We plan to begin state testing next week.”
On Wednesday afternoon, workers had just begun digging a second hole under the school.
Kishauna Ross’ 14-year-old daughter is in the eighth grade at the 234-student school. She was not pleased with the temporary bathroom trailers because she said the facilities for girls and boys — while they have separate entrances — are housed in the same trailer.
Marta Jewson / The Lens
A portable toilet trailer sits on the blacktop at Harney elementary school in Central City on April 3, 2019. Crews are repairing the school’s drain line and bathrooms are out-of-service while they work to fix a dislodged pipe.
Washington said the portable bathrooms have separate entrances and stalls within them, but she didn’t address adult supervision.
Ross also said she was not informed of the problem.
“I do not like the fact that I didn’t get a letter stating there was a problem with the restrooms at the school,” Ross said on Tuesday.
Nor did she receive a phone call, she said, noting the school often robocalls announcements.
“I really have an issue with it,” she said.
The lack of indoor bathrooms is just one more thing in a long list of challenges for Harney, which CONTINUE READING: Students at school slated for closure face yet another hurdle: no bathrooms | The Lens
