Extreme temperatures spread throughout the Bay Area this past Labor Day weekend, creating dangerous conditions and causing its citizens to be on high alert about their health and safety.
Temperatures rose to triple digits this past weekend creating remarkably uncomfortable conditions for both indoor and outdoor activities and posing health risks
Kristin Coronado, the Sequoia Union High School District nurse is one of those most worried by the blistering heat, and hoped to help keep students safe by talking to Woodside World about how to stay safe during extreme heat waves.
“If you can avoid being outside, avoid it,” Coronado warned.
While she advises students to stay inside, Coronado gave students the tools to avoid heat illnesses with precautions that one can take to stay safe both indoors and out.
“Avoid the sun in the peak hours, wear cool light layers, or light clothes, a hat and sunscreen…make sure you are hydrated starting from before you are outside. So, in the morning start drinking lots of water if you know you are going to be outside”, Coronado enthusiastically stressed.
Without taking the precautions to take proper care of the human body, we become susceptible to heat illnesses that can create dangerous situations.
“Heat exhaustion is probably the first symptom and that includes heavy sweating… your pulse racing and heart pounding. That can lead to heat stroke and which is more severe and that’s when you kinda stop sweating and your body starts to shut down”, Coronado explains.
While we take the steps to take care of the human body, teachers in the B-Wing here at Woodside deal with the extreme heat in and outside their classrooms. Gay Buckland; French I, III, IV and AP teacher, describes her daily battle with this heat.
“In the morning when I arrive, it’s already in the mid 70s. Yesterday [September 13th] was the first time pretty much since school started, my room did not get into the 80s… so everyday since school started it’s been in the mid-80s”, Buckland explains.
The B-Wing unfortunately, like many other wings at Woodside, does not have air conditioning. Intense heat causes discomfort and focus issues in the classrooms for both teachers and students.
“The students feel like if the lights are off… they feel cooler….I think for sure the student focus [is affected by the heat] and on some days when it is unusually warm, like the days when it’s been 86, 87, or higher in here”, Buckland expresses.
To help her students cope with the heat, she adjusts her lesson plan to relieve stress on her students.
“I really have tried to slow down how much curriculum I give them and my expectations of what I want them to give me back…at the end of the day I have been exhausted”, Buckland confesses.
Make sure to keep cool during extreme heat waves to avoid a potentially dangerous situation.
“To stay safe with the extreme heats… sit in front of a fan,” Coronado states.
