The school has been housed at an old beer factory for 23 years and the building has a variety of problems. These include inadequate lighting, no hot water, broken banisters where students get splinters, and no central heating or air. “The freshman locker room floods every time it rains and they haven’t done anything about it,” said Xavier Lobo, a student at Science High. Freshmen can’t get to their lockers during such times. The school also doesn’t have a gymnasium. That fact became an issue the week before the walkout when a female student was sexually assaulted at the YMWCA, where the school currently holds physical education classes. This incident may have precipitated the protest.

The administration has refused to address these problems, claiming it is waiting to relocate the students to a new building under construction. Completion of that building, however, has been postponed many times.

Eddie “Santi” Beck
Newark, New Jersey  
 
 
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