Environmental Racism Means Students Have to Breathe Polluted Air at School

We’re not the only students dealing with this. Millions of young people go to school near major highways. In New York, about one-third of students attend school near a major highway. Nationally, a report by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting shows, nearly 8,000 public schools are within 500 feet of highways — that’s about one in every 11 public schools, affecting 4.4 million students.

States like Florida, Indiana, and California have already taken action to keep highway pollution out of kids’ lungs. But New York is trailing behind, despite the fact that New York has more students who attend school near major roadways than any other state in the nation.

We need New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the Schools Impacted by Gross Highways “SIGH” Act immediately. This bill, co-authored by the New York Civil Liberties Union, prohibits any new school from being constructed within 500 feet of a major roadway. It wouldn’t impact existing schools, but it would be a big step toward healthier, safer schools overall.

The impacts of going to school within 500 feet of a major roadway can be serious and long-lasting. For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has warned that children who attend school near a major road have higher chances of developing asthma, reduced lung function, and impaired lung development. Asthma, specifically, is associated with 10 million missed school days every year. This exposure can also seriously hurt the brain development of students, potentially leading to more problem behavior, higher dropout rates, and bad performance on tests.

The environmental injustice and racism of this whole situation is undeniable. Nationwide, Black students are most likely to attend school near a major roadway. My school has mostly Black and Latino students, and across New York, around 80% of the state’s students who attend schools near a major roadway are Black or Latino. Two-thirds of us are low-income. It is disheartening that students like me are missing school days, performing worse on tests, and getting sick because we’re being ignored by state leaders and lawmakers — the exact people who are supposed to care about us.

I’ve experienced this firsthand. Before I started at Benjamin Banneker, I rarely dealt with allergies or illness; now I’m coughing, sneezing, my eyes are always watering, and I feel sick all the time. A lot of my friends have developed asthma and allergies, and they’re only getting sicker. Schools are supposed to be safe places, not places where students are exposed to toxic air day after day.

School proximity to major roadways is only a small part of the bigger problem of environmental racism, which hurts our entire country and exposes communities of color to toxic air, unsafe water, and other harmful environmental conditions.

High school is already stressful enough. I shouldn’t have to worry about the air I’m breathing every time I walk into class. By passing the SIGH Act, New York can help save the futures of millions of students and add to the push for healthier, safer schools nationwide.

Xanath Hernandez is a student in the Teen Activist Project at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

This piece was originally published in Teen Vogue.