Students in US high schools grapple with abysmal conditions, doc reveals

Students in American high schools are grappling with the abysmal conditions of infrastructure and environment, according to a new video documentary made by students themselves.

In a short eight-minute video published by Druid Hills High School students earlier this month, the first scene opens with a high school student explaining how human waste flows up from the ground and floods an area where he and his friends eat lunch.

In several scenes, there are large holes in the ceiling of classrooms, plaster is falling off walls, and water is dripping around electrical outlets.

In one of the scenes, so much water has leaked into a room that it oozes up from the floor when a student steps on it.

In an interview with the AP news agency, sophomore Harley Martz, one of the students who produced the video, stressed that some of the things they pointed out in the video were “very undeniable.”

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“As you walk through the school now, you can smell the mold and it's kind of really nasty, so I tend to walk outside just so I can avoid the smell,” Montrice Berry, a junior student says in the video.

Berry said that his fellows applauded him for speaking up and revealing the story by publishing the video on Youtube.

The video, which has already clocked more than 27,000 views in less than two weeks, has sparked outrage among parents in the suburban area just east of Atlanta.

The video was produced by the students after the DeKalb County School Board in February removed Druid Hills from a list of schools in need of necessary repairs.

According to historical accounts from the district, the school is among the oldest in Georgia and has been in operation since the 1920s.

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In another case, journalism students documented conditions at Maury High School in Virginia and posted it on a YouTube channel, which angered the school administrators, who ordered to remove the video in 2019.

Another video of similar poor conditions was posted the same year by the residents of the state of Louisiana, exposing problems and worsening conditions at a local high school.

In a letter to community members of the district, Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris wrote that the school board “is grateful for the advocacy of these students for themselves and future generations of learners,” adding that the board's next steps will be to "move forward with renovations at the school, including addressing immediate needs.”

However, students said that school administrators are ignorant and not taking any concrete steps. 

“So far I feel like they’re just talking,” Berry said, adding that: “I don’t really see a change so far. No one has really done anything.”

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