Teacher shares video of students navigating flooded hallway by walking on benches to eat lunch

Kerry Justich
·Health and Wellness Staff Writer

While Tropical Storm Imelda was tearing through parts of Texas, students in Houston were making their way through floods at school with the help of their dedicated teachers. At one elementary school, in particular, this meant setting up benches for the young kids to get to lunch safely.

A teacher at Durham Elementary School in Houston, Texas took a video of students hobbling across blue benches that sat in what appears to be a foot of water on Thursday. In the video, the educator, whose identity is not known, is heard saying, “Nobody’s gonna believe this.”

According to Storyful, where she uploaded the video anonymously, the teacher and her colleagues were worried about the children being cold and wet throughout the day after the rain started to come down earlier that morning. In an attempt to keep the children comfortable and dry, one of her coworkers started making a bridge out of the benches in the hallway.

“The video was taken to share the circumstances that the students and faculty face every time it rains. It showed teachers jumping into action and doing what was necessary to make sure those students felt safe and secure,” she shared to Storyful. “The students are the priority and nothing else mattered in that moment.”

The teacher went on to explain that the unbelievable incident wasn’t an isolated one. Instead, she said that the Houston Independent School District (HISD) has “overlooked” Durham Elementary despite multiple efforts to get a bond for a new school building to replace their current 50-year-old structure.

“When will these students become a priority for HISD like they are for the staff and community who pour into these children each and every day?” she asked.

HISD provided the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle about the severe weather and its impact on schools in the district:

All HISD schools and offices are closed and classes are canceled for Friday, September 20 to allow our students and staff time to recover from the conditions resulting from Tropical Storm Imelda and prepare our buildings. Schools and offices are expected to reopen and classes to resume as usual on Monday, September 23.

In response to the district’s school closures announcement on Twitter, students and parents said that HISD should be “ashamed” for waiting until Friday to call school off.

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