Schools Embrace Environment and Sow Debate

Every weekday at 2:30 p.m., a line of luxury sedans and sport utility vehicles idles outside Scarsdale Middle School in Westchester County. Exhaust fumes pollute the atmosphere, even though posted signs decree this a “No Idling Zone” and students berate their parents for violating it.

“I normally do abide by it,” said Loryn Kass, 41, as she hastily turned off her BMW sedan while waiting for her daughter on a recent afternoon. “I totally support it to keep the air clean and fresh for our children.”

The school pickup line has become the latest front in a growing school-based environmental movement that has moved far beyond recycling programs and Earth Day celebrations to challenge long-accepted school norms.

Since 2004, dozens of public and private schools in Westchester and New York City and on Long Island have adopted no-idling zones, switched to plant-based cleaners in their buildings and, to a lesser extent, banned pesticides from playgrounds and playing fields, according to Grassroots Environmental Education, a nonprofit group that began a campaign this month promoting all three measures.

Similar efforts have spread across the country. The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education, a nonprofit group, has recognized 163 Maryland Green Schools — nearly one-third of them in the last two years — for taking initiatives like preserving wetlands, banning disposable plastic water bottles or assigning environmentally themed readings.

No effort is deemed too small. In a light-bulb exchange in Southern California, students in 26 schools in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties replaced 15,734 incandescent bulbs — and counting — in their homes with energy-efficient compact fluorescent versions. Officials and educators in California are planning the first Green California Schools Summit in Pasadena in December, expected to draw more than 2,000 school board members, administrators and teachers.