As the flooding in Jackson, Mississippi, continues to upend the lives of tens of thousands of residents, the city’s youngest are struggling to continue their schooling.
Erica Jones, an educator for the last 21 years and president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said the 20,000 students in the predominantly Black and impoverished school district are dealing with yet another disruption after the pandemic.
But water issues are not new to Jackson. When she taught at an elementary school between 2010 and 2014, Jones said schools would go “days, weeks, without water” especially during the winter.
“What’s different now than from between 2000 and 2014, when I was in the classroom, they don’t have a fix. It’s almost like they put a Band-aid on a shotgun and now it has run out,” Jones told the Guardian.
The Jackson Public Schools announced on Tuesday students would return to virtual learning.
“We will continue to closely monitor the water conditions on a day-by-day basis at our schools while conferring with city officials to determine when scholars and staff can safely return for in-person learning,” the district noted in a statement.
Jones told the Guardian that educators have expressed frustration at the lack of consistency students have had with their learning during the pandemic and beyond. Research by the Mississippi Association of Educators found that in 2021, more than half of schools closed at some point because of water issues. “We have no idea when our kids will go back in person,” she said.
The latest water crisis has forced parents, particularly from low-income households and who have students with disabilities, to choose between staying home with their kids to oversee virtual learning or to go to work to support their family.
“August should be a time of joy for our students. This is a time when our back to school season starts. This is a time when we’re getting to know our students. Many of our teachers have classroom wishlists that normally include crayons, notebooks, paper, pencils,” Jones said.
“This year we’ll have to include water, bottled water and water containers. Our parents can’t afford it.”
This is not the first time Jackson has faced scrutiny over how disruptions in the city’s ageing water system have afflicted the lives of its residents. Last October, attorneys representing 600 children sued the city of Jackson and current and former city leaders, including its mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, for making a series of “conscience-shocking decisions” that exposed children to lead pollution and “for allowing the city’s drinking water to become contaminated with lead”.
The federal lawsuit alleges that Jackson officials “failed to warn Jackson’s citizens” about a change the city made in 2014 when, despite warnings of rising lead levels by public works officials, the city switched water sources from well water to surface water from the Pearl River and Ross Barnett reservoir. Corey Stern, one of the attorneys behind the Jackson lawsuit, also represented Flint children in a similar lawsuit that resulted in a $626bn settlement.
Jones foreshadowed what the cost of flooding might be in an op-ed to Mississippi Free Press on 26 August.
“[T]he recent rain deluge is threatening the viability of our ancient pipe system,” she wrote, adding that the city’s longstanding water crisis represented an “education crisis” for children across Jackson: “The learning experience of Jackson students at every level is being disrupted without notice and with lasting harm due to lack of water, low water pressure and dependence on bottled water.”
