The aftermath of a school explosion

January 13, 2012  Science room mishap prompts HAZMAT response at David Douglas High

August 12, 1985 Science Class...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

The aftermath of a school explosion

NYTIMES Magazine, February 27, 2005. "The Rescue Artist," by Deborah Solomon. Below is an excerpt from an article about Jonathan Safran Foer, Author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 

… "Astoundingly, he insists that his development as a writer was shaped less by his parents and by his genetic endowments, less even by the novelists and poets he loves, than by a single event: the Explosion, as he calls it. ...

[His email] began: “Firstly, let me say that these are, quite literally, the first words I’ve ever written about this. Ever.  Literally not a single world.” Foer told me later that he had composed the message at home, at the desk in his cluttered basement workshop, his thin face streaked with tears. The letter recounted, in some detail, the event that split the idyll of his childhood in two: the years before Aug. 12, 1985, and the years after.

That bright Monday morning began innocently enough. Foer, a boy of 8, was attending a summer program at Murch Elementary, a pubic school not far from his home. The first lesson of the day was a chemistry project, and in an act of  nearly unbelievable carelessness, the teacher laid out bowls of combustible materials.  The goal was to make sparklers...

Read more: The aftermath of a school explosion

Includes The Washington Post article: $11 Million Awarded for Boy Burned in School Lab

My Boys and Girls Are in There

by Ron Rozelle, Publication Date: March 1, 2012
6 x 9, 184 pp.18 b&w photos. Appendix. Index.

The 1937 New London School Explosion

On March 18, 1937, a spark ignited a vast pool of natural gas that had collected beneath the school building in New London, a tiny community in East Texas. The resulting explosion leveled the four-year-old structure and resulted in a death toll of more than three hundred—most of them children. To this day, it is the worst school disaster in the history of the United States. The tragedy and its aftermath were the first big stories covered by Walter Cronkite, then a young wire service reporter stationed in Dallas. He would later say that no war story he ever covered—during World War II or Vietnam—was as heart-wrenching.

In the weeks following the tragedy, a fact-finding committee sought to determine who was to blame. It soon became apparent that the New London school district had, along with almost all local businesses and residents, tapped into pipelines carrying unrefined gas from the plentiful oil fields of the area. It was technically illegal, but natural gas was in abundance in the “Oil Patch.” The jerry-rigged conduits leaked the odorless “green” gas that would destroy the school.

A long-term effect of the disaster was the shared guilt experienced—for the rest of their lives—by most of the survivors. There is, perhaps, no better example than Bill Thompson, who was in his fifth grade English class and “in the mood to flirt” with Billie Sue Hall, who was sitting two seats away. Thompson asked another girl to trade seats with him. She agreed—and was killed in the explosion, while Thompson and Hall both survived and lived long lives, never quite coming to terms with their good fortune.

My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion is a meticulous, candid account by veteran educator and experienced author Ron Rozelle. Unfolding with the narrative pace of a novel, the story woven by Rozelle—beginning with the title—combines the anguished words of eyewitnesses with telling details from the historical and legal record. Released to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New London School disaster, My Boys and Girls Are in There paints an intensely human portrait of this horrific event.
 
The author of seven previous books, Ron Rozelle is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

Review
The New London explosion – Two views of America's worst school ...On March 18, 1937, in East Texas' tiny New London community, a natural gas explosion killed some 300 students, teachers and others at London Junior-Senior ...
sagecreek.wordpress.com/.../the-new-london-explosion-two-vi...

Gordon College Annual Green Chemistry Lecture

2012 Green Chemistry Lecture  We are pleased to announce our next Green Chemistry Lecture: Green Chemistry: Chemistry for the Long Haul, Michael C. Cann, Chemistry Department, University of Scranton, Thursday, March 1, 2012, 4:30 pm

As concerns over such issues as food, water, energy, climate change and waste production escalate, sustainability is rapidly moving from the wings to center stage on the world agenda.  Chemistry, the central science, must play a central role in moving humanity onto a sustainable path. Green Chemistry (environmentally benign chemistry) is the paradigm that will aid in the development of this sustainability.  Green chemistry not only focuses on pollution prevention, but also the efficient use of resources, use of renewable resources, and energy conservation. This presentation will highlight the ethos of green chemistry, the twelve principles of green chemistry, specific examples of green chemistry from the winners of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, and some of our efforts to infuse green chemistry into the curriculum.

For more info on our Green Chemistry Series, email: chemistry@gordon.edu  

Green Chemistry Resources List

Get ready for National Healthy Schools Day

Activity Ideas from the Bourne TX Educational Leadership Forum:  LINK

Virtual School Walkthrough Webinar 2.0:

Effectively Responding to Common IAQ Issues and Concerns

Thursday, January 26, 2012, 1 – 2:30 p.m. EST

Register today for this free webinar!

This webinar is a follow-on to the Virtual School Walkthrough 1.0 webinar, held in December 2011. This webinar will touch upon the information presented in December, but further delve into how you can effectively respond to IAQ issues and concerns and how to communicate your IAQ assessment findings to your school community.

Attend this webinar to:

·         Discover best practices for addressing IAQ issues raised by teachers, students, staff and other school community members. Learn how to maintain effective communication throughout the issue response and resolution process.

·         Learn tips and techniques on how to properly use common IAQ instruments, including how and when to collect data, interpret it, and effective ways to report your results.

·         Understand the limitations of air sampling for mold and other pollutants, the relative value of a thorough visual inspection, and what can be accomplished without the use of instruments.

·         Hear how to foster a culture of open communication in your district where reports of IAQ concerns are welcomed and encouraged as part of a quality IAQ management plan.

This webinar is offered at no cost to participants. Don’t miss your chance to have your questions answered by the speakers – send your questions by clicking the button below or sending an email to IAQTfSConnector@cadmusgroup.com by January 23, 2012.

		Gone at 3:17: The Untold Story of the Worst School Disaster in American History  David M. Brown and Michael Wereschagin ... Gone at 3:17 is a true story of what can happen when school officials make bad decisions. To save money on heating the school building, the trustees had authorized workers to tap into a pipeline carrying “waste” natural gas produced by a gasoline refinery. The explosion led to laws that now require gas companies to add the familiar pungent odor. The knowledge that the tragedy could have been prevented added immeasurably to the heartbreak experienced by the survivors and the victims’ families. The town would never be the same. Using interviews, testimony from survivors, and archival newspaper files, Gone at 3:17 puts readers inside the shop class to witness the spark that ignited the gas. Many of those interviewed during twenty years of research are no longer living, but their acts of heroism and stories of survival live on in this meticulously documented and extensively illustrated book. Review The New London explosion – Two views of America's worst school ...On March 18, 1937, in East Texas' tiny New London community, a natural gas explosion killed some 300 students, teachers and others at London Junior-Senior ... sagecreek.wordpress.com/.../the-new-london-explosion-two-vi...