Students at an Espoo school walked out of classes on Thursday over concerns about the quality of air in classrooms.
The Leppävaara students say the air inside the building is bad, and not enough is being done to address their concerns.
According to school authorities the students have been suffering from symptoms attributed to air quality for some time, and a dozen pupils have moved to another school because of the issue, reports Länsiväylä newspaper.
“I don’t get the symptoms very easily, and I never thought I would get them in the first
place, but here I do get headache during classes” second year student Jonatan Saarenmaa tells the Espoo newspaper.
Saaremaa says that the student union board asked students for their opinion on the classroom walk-out, and up to 99% of the 360 students at the school supported it.
The City of Espoo is aware of the problem, and students were expected to move to temporary facilities at the beginning of the year but now completion of those facilities is expected to be delayed at least three months.
“This is a fairly catastrophic situation” says Saarenmaa.
“Nobody really knows where we are studying in two months. Are we going to shift to distance learning? It doesn’t feel realistic, but it seems like the only option” he adds.
The CEO of Tilapalvelut Maija Lehtinen, who is responsible for the acquisition and
maintenance of buildings in Espoo, says that the new premises are due to be completed in March, and hopes that education could continue in the current location until then.
High school teachers are concerned about the situation as well, and students and faculty have pressured Espoo City Council to take urgent action to find alternative space for the high school by the end of the year.
