It’s just after 8 a.m. and elementary school students are getting ready to start a long day of classes.

They take their seats and begin listening to the first lesson of the day.

As the teacher begins talking, students discard their raincoats and begin to get comfortable. The floors are a bit wet after water droplets from students’ raincoats drip onto the classroom’s floor. But soon, another drip begins to add to the puddle.

Some of the children begin to move away from the drip, soon discovered to be coming from the room’s ceiling. Children near the leak begin to move to other areas of the classroom. The teacher places a bucket under the leak and the lesson continues.

The story is all too real at Knox Elementary, where school board members say students are forced to sit in certain areas to avoid rainwater dripping from the ceiling.

“We found the school in horrible condition,” Selma City School Board member Udo Ufomadu said during Tuesday’s work session. “It’s totally unacceptable what we saw.”

Many families in our community live below the poverty line. Because of financial harship, a dripping roof may be unavoidable at home.

Students shouldn’t have to cope and adapt to problems within the school system.

The school system should foster a friendly environment that’s easy to learn in. Being forced to changed seats because there’s a hole in the roof is a problem that students shouldn’t have to deal with or worry about.

Selma City Schools may not have thousands of dollars in rainy day funds, but, at minimum, the schools should provide shelter, food and education.

School board members said the issue at Knox first came to light four years ago, which is more than enough time to find a solution.

Instead of delaying repair and subjecting students to the elements, school officials should work quickly to repair the roof over Knox Elementary.