For months, the windows in our school have been slowly replaced while students go about their day. According to administration, these new windows are both energy efficient and environmentally friendly due to being coated in an ultraviolet glaze that, while invisible to the human eye, can be seen by birds. Classes have occasionally had to relocate for a few days while the new windows are installed and some students have complained about the racket that disrupts their studies. Yet overall, most students seem onboard with the idea of environmentally friendly and efficient windows. While this seems like a noble cause, I warn you not to believe everything that you read. For all their perks, these windows have a dark side. They KILL BIRDS!!!

After the windows around the Arts Building had all been replaced, multiple students reported seeing birds with broken necks lying under the “harmless windows.” Whitney Young eighth grader, Sage Sysavathly, describes witnessing one of these birds’ fatal collision, “Behind us we heard, BONK, we looked and saw a bird just sliding down the window.” They later remarked that, “the windows do keep out the bees.”

It doesn’t take much critical thinking to conclude from these incidents that our new, ‘environmentally friendly’ windows are defective. It seems preposterous that a public school would spend an extraordinarily large sum of money installing new windows in the middle of the school year just for birds to continue to fly into them. I propose that we remove the windows altogether. By removing the windows, we will get rid of the problem and just have classes in nature. One junior remarked, “the lack of windows would make for a speedy exit in case of an emergency!” 

When asked to comment on the complaints about the new windows and hopes of getting rid of them, one shiny new window in Blue House declined to comment. While the windows suspiciously stayed silent, the birds were very vocal in their outrage. They quickly denounced the windows, tweeting that windows are “unnatural,” calling for their immediate removal. Whether we decide to remove the windows or not, the community of Whitney Young has to face this issue and come up with some solution. By continuing to call the faulty windows “environmentally friendly” we are ignoring the deaths of many innocent animals that have lived in this area for generations.