News-Record.com

All behold the awesome powers of hindsight.

Hell, while we're at it, why stop with the sprinkler system? If the school board really cared about the children, they would have called the fire department and had a ladder company standing around the chemistry lab approx. 5 minutes before the fire started, in order to put it out.

I'm all in favor of firing the current school board. Any reason will do at this point.

The problem with doing that, however, is that these positions are elected. I went to vote today. Out of 4 district seats and one at-large seat up for election, only ONE was contested. How can we vote anybody out if there isn't another candidate to vote for? On top of that both Guilford County Commissioner seats were uncontested. Makes it kinda hard to vote for change, doesn't it?

I'm so sick of all this crap, that I'm personally thinking about running for office soon just to give somebody a choice. I'd probably lose but at least there would be somebody to vote for beside the loser incumbants.

Nit, I am amazed that anyone runs for school board. Can't imagine wanting to deal with all the issues that come up. To those who have the kids at heart, I say thank you and God Bless You, we know who they are.

I find it amazing that some blame this school board for the fire. Stuff happens. You can't be prepared for all that can happen. Loved some of the comments yesterday about all we should be prepared for. Funny but also true.

Instead of running for office, I think I should just run and get the hell out of this county. If a populace can be judged by its leaders, this county is full of a bunch of racist, greedy, lying, lazy, and conniving bastards. ;)

nitpicker,

Sad to say but true.

Carol, why don't you run for school board. You know where all the bodies are buried, and you would make a great board member, in the tradition of Nancy Routh. Don't forget to vote for Garth today in District 2, if you want change on the school board.

I agree that the board is not to be held responsible for the Eastern fire, but I will hold them accountable if they don't use this as a learning experience and give strong consideration as to how our schools can be made safer for students and staff. I feel that every school in the county should have a risk assessment performed by a fire professional to determine where fire risks may exist and make recommendations to the administration and board of their findings. It may not be that sprinklers are needed throughout every school, but since sprinklers are required for new schools, it it likely that some sprinkler protection is needed in high risk areas of some schools. I am of the opinion that the public would support the funding of needed fire protection based upon such a profesional assessment and recommendation. It's our children that may be at risk. We shouldn't not provide fire protection for schools just because it's not required by law.

Back in the mid 80's I worked for a company that oversaw asbesto removal from buildings. The company was independent from the removal contractors to inspect the work, conduct air quality monitoring and ensure the job was done correctly.

I was one of those inspectors. It amazed me that there was such a fury from parents that asbestos would harm their little darlings and it must be removed. The schools spent billions nationwide to remove this threat.

While some of the asbestos was a hazard, much of it was not. I could understand removing exposed asbestos from the classrooms from pipes and other sources. However, much of the asbestos was in crawl spaces and in boiler rooms where students never go!! Of course you do have maintenance people in these areas, but asbestos is not harmful as long as it is left undisturbed.

Soooooo, the schools spent billions, much of it unwarranted, on asbestos removal but apparently some have not spent money on fire protection! I guess it's where politics lie.

I don't know how the fire started, but if it was started by chemicals in the chemistry lab, then sprinklers wouldn't have worked anyway.

PS. I agree--we need more people to run for the school board.

In my personal experience many of the people I know didn't bother to vote in the primaries so there was no one else to vote for. It's crap and I told all of them that. I actually got one of them this morning when she started yapping about the school board. I took great pleasure in telling her to cram it since she didnt bother voting. She didn't like it, but she finally gave up and realized I was right. Too bad my being right doesn't change a darn thing.