Raising a Stink
“I’m not saying we’re dying of cancer or anything, but it’s annoying,” says John Whitfield, a Spanish teacher who’s pushing the administration to eliminate the problem. “It comes and it goes. You might go a week without noticing it. Other weeks it will be two days in a row or a couple times in a day. I have to stop the lesson and open the windows and open the door until it goes away. I tell the kids if they want to go out in the hall, fine.”
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The placement of the school’s two air-intake vents is at the center of the fumes controversy because the vents face an alley the school shares with several Ashland Avenue businesses. Truck drivers who use the alley for deliveries tend to leave their engines running, and the exhaust is sucked into the ventilation system. Jankowski says that placing air intakes on the sides of buildings is standard practice, and at ten feet above ground level, Chavez’s comply with the city’s building code.
Daley took the matter to the Chicago Teachers Union, which filed a grievance on behalf of the faculty members. She also wrote Traback a letter in March 1994 stating, “We feel that there have been several times when there was bad air in our classrooms and the engineering staff would not allow us to open our windows. We are suffering some symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning such as headaches, nausea, light headedness and vomiting. Since carbon monoxide poisoning can cause brain damage and death we request immediate action to remedy the situation.”
In October 1994 Daley again took the matter to the union, claiming that the fumes caused “extreme discomfort.” The union called on Traback and the building engineer to “investigate this matter and devise a plan to eliminate or alleviate this unsafe and unhealthy situation.”
At a faculty meeting last spring Traback asked teachers to keep their windows closed because the air-conditioning had been turned on. “I spoke up and said, ‘And when the fumes enter the building?’” says Whitfield. “She said something to the effect that the matter had been taken care of. So I asked if she was saying that it had been fixed, and she answered yes. Needless to say, this pushed my button.”
On December 4 the union filed a new grievance on behalf of Whitfield, claiming that the continuing exhaust fumes violate article 44-9 of the board-union agreement, which states that “teachers…shall work under safe and healthful conditions.” The grievance asked the principal to “take action to prevent the fumes from entering the building.”
