KWONG: OK. Georgianna, let's listen to your winning submission about the water crisis in Jackson, Miss.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALARM RINGING)

MCKENNY: Mariah starts her day by going to the bathroom to check if her water pressure is working before getting ready for school. As she turns the handle, no water comes from the faucet. And so she looks under her sink for a water bottle to find out that there are none left. She sighs, picks up her phone and dials the high school.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hello. The counselor is speaking.

MARIAH: Hey. I'm calling to tell you that my water pressure has been low the entire weekend, and hygiene has been hard. I ain't going to be able to come to school today.

MCKENNY: Jackson, Miss., has been dealing with water issues for a long period of time, but the issue has recently gotten worse. In the summer of 2022, the city shut down because of dilapidated infrastructure. The main pipes at the O.B. Curtis and the water pumps at J.H. Fewell station were already severely damaged. But after flooding, the pipes collapsed. As a result, the city's water towers were left dry, leaving the city without enough water for their homes, schools and businesses. The news covered how businesses had to shut down and how the workers were affected. However, they seem to have forgotten about the youth of Jackson during this water crisis.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUNNING)

MCKENNY: Children are missing instructional time in the classroom, and this is not talked about enough in the media. On January 6, 2023, Jackson Public Schools had to go virtual after reports of little to no water pressure were reported in all 33 schools. They returned back to classes on January 9, and this marked the fifth day of school that they have lost because of the water crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Instructional, time is the foundation of everything that happens at a school, and teachers have to protect that instructional time. Otherwise, they won't help their students meet benchmarks that are relevant to the standards that get tested for at the end of each school year. At a typical school, if you lose a week teaching to a standard because there have been water crises or tornadoes or illnesses or what have you, it really affects everything that takes place for the rest of the semester. You have to decide, well, where will I cut a corner? What will I do in order to help students meet the standards that are going to be tested on at the end of the year so that students can progress towards mastery of subjects that will be important to them even later in their educational careers.

MCKENNY: Even when they are in school, they have to worry about factors such as the bathroom and the lunch.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOILET FLUSHING)

MCKENNY: Something so simple as using the bathroom has become difficult because of how low the water pressure is. The school must bring in port-a-potties to adjust to this crisis, but there are times when they can mess up as well. Using the bathroom can take an extremely long time.

MARIAH: As of right now, we barely have water, so we have to use port-a-potties. And sometimes there is only one toilet available, so going to the bathroom can take a very long time. I mean, sometimes it takes up half the class period, and sometimes it takes up half the day.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: We would close down most of the restrooms and limit the number of restrooms that we use to about two for each building. And each restroom has about three to four to five stalls in each one of them. And the reason we do that is because it's hard to maintenance.

MCKENNY: Students can become frustrated because of the bathroom situation, and that can affect how they act in class. Lunch has gone dramatically downhill ever since the water crisis worsened back in the summer of 2022. In South Jackson, the cafeterias have limited their options on what they can serve to the students because of the water crisis.

MARIAH: The food was never that good to begin with, but at least we had options. They barely have salads. They barely have good fruits. And I feel like the food they serve us now is still the same. Like, it's just pizza or hot dogs throughout the week. I'd be irritated and still hungry.

MCKENNY: In North Jackson, depending on how the water crisis is that day, the school can either serve hot lunches or cold lunches.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Sometimes they have enough water to cook a full hot meal, and then other times they do not. Let's assume that today that there is enough water to cook the hot meals, and they will do that. A second scenario day is when there is low water pressure. And so on those days, the cafeteria staff might prepare sack lunches.