Whither The Winter Coat?—

Chillin’ With The Children

By Nancy K. Crevier

What is a mother to do? Kids in shorts, kids in T-shirts, kids in sandals; kids attired in all kinds of summery outfits when the calendar clearly states that it is winter in the Northeast. It is not that Connecticut children are subject to dangerously low, subzero temperatures day after day, as are children in some northern parts of our country. But why do young people in Newtown shrug off wearing a coat when winter clasps its cold arms about their shoulders?

Like many of his fellow students, Aaron Nezvesky, a middle school student at Newtown Middle School, does not like to bring a winter jacket to school. “It gets hot,” he says, adding, “It’s a hassle, so I’d rather not do that. I’ll take a sweatshirt if it’s really cold.”

Matt Yitts and Caleb Benore are wearing thin T-shirts and jeans this 33-degree afternoon as they prepare to board the bus home. They agree with Aaron that winter coats are a nuisance. “I don’t ever like to wear [my jacket],” says Matt. Caleb’s coat is in his locker, where it will probably stay, he says, for the next several days.

“It’s just not cold,” say Matt Datin and Colby Summerlin, clad in shorts and T-shirts after gym class. They won’t bother to change into long pants and jackets before they head home, where they might get a little guff from their moms, but not enough to make them change their minds about winter outerwear.

It is not only the boys at the middle school who scorn winter wear. Laura Curcurulo used to wear flip-flops until her mother recently laid down the law. “My mom told me I had to wear shoes,” she says. She swears her feet were not cold in the summer flats.

Middle school student Eric Thornberg wears shorts and a T-shirt every day of the year, say his parents, Shari and Chris Thornberg. “It started in seventh grade. I don’t think he does get cold. He says he doesn’t and even though I just can’t believe it, there are other issues worth pursuing,” says his mother. “We used to fight about it all the time and then I decided it wasn’t worth it. He doesn’t get sick. He’s the healthiest of my kids.” She believes that Eric is more comfortable dressed lightly and that it also a way for him to express his individual style. “He owns two pair of pants that I haven’t seen,” she says, “and I think his jacket has been sitting in his locker since the one day I made him wear it.”

 To answer the English gentleman who one day stopped his car to inquire of her son as he waited one cold morning at the bus stop, “Excuse me, son. Do you think you’ll ever wear trousers?” Ms Thornberg would have to say, “I like to think it is just a phase.”

Eric is not alone. Lisa and Paul Buccino are the parents of an eighth grade boy who wears shorts “12 months of the year,” his mother says. “Adam has always run hot.” Like many parents, the Buccinos fought for years to get Adam out of shorts and into long pants and a jacket during the colder months. “We let it go to November 1, then it was until December 1,” says Ms Buccino. “Then we decided to just let it go.”

Adam has never liked constrictive clothing, anyway, say the Buccinos, and feels that winter jackets are too bulky and inconvenient. “He does own a jacket,” exclaims Ms Buccino. “We bought a jacket just before the first snow, and if he is playing out in the snow, he will dress in snow pants and a jacket. But with the winter we have had, that one time may be the only time this year that the jacket gets worn.”

If Adam showed signs of illness and she thought it was from being underdressed, Ms Buccino says she would insist on his wearing more weather appropriate clothing. “He doesn’t feel it, though, and he doesn’t get sick. It would probably have to be near zero with the wind whipping before he would wear a jacket.”

While Adam and Eric may not succumb to illness in the colder months, Dee Cupole, the nurse supervisor at Newtown High School for the past 22 years, has her own theory concerning the correlation between how teenagers dress and illness.

You Can’t Catch

Cold From Cold

“By not wearing proper clothing your immune system is working harder. You can’t catch a virus or bacterial infection [just from the cold],” she says, “but your system is compromised.” Ms Cupole watches high school students disembark from the buses every morning, many of them dressed in shorts, tops with spaghetti straps and wearing flip-flops on their feet, even in January. She points out that today’s high school student’s morning routine is different from that of a high school student a generation ago. “There is no waiting outside for the bus anymore. A lot of kids drive to school or their parents drive them to the bus stop and they wait in a heated car until the bus comes. Then they just run from the bus to the school. They don’t buy jackets; they don’t wear them.”

Someone is buying those coats and hats that fill the lost and found cupboard in the main office of the high school. Parents who are wondering what happened to that expensive London Fog or Abercrombie & Fitch jacket that they never see on their teen’s back might want to inquire there. “We get tons of clothes like coats and jackets and sweatshirts,” says Bob Hein, one of the custodians at Newtown High School.

Mr Hein concedes that it is not just Newtown High School students who disdain their outerwear. With so many events taking place at the school, forgotten apparel from competing sports teams and the spectators is frequently collected at the end of the day. It all goes to the same place: the high school office. “It fills the cabinet there. We empty it about once a month or so,” he says. Unclaimed items end up in a 55-gallon trash bag in the janitor’s storage closet. There they sit until the end of the school year when the custodians spread everything out on the floor near the cafeteria. If after two weeks the clothing is still not snapped up by its owner, it is shipped off to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. “Maybe 50 percent of it gets claimed,” says Mr Hein.

She does not go so far as to don sandals in winter, but Newtown High School Assistant Principal Cathy Ostar sheepishly admits that she does not wear a winter coat to school. “My car is in a garage, the seats are heated. I run from the parking lot into the school and I’m here all day.” She has no problem relating to her students who swear they are absolutely comfortable in thin layers at school.

Generating Heat

Dr Jack Fong, head of pediatrics at Danbury Hospital, says there may be a physiological reason why young people profess to be warm when their parents and teachers are pleading with them to bundle up. “Their metabolism is higher because they are in a growing phase. Metabolism always generates some heat,” says Dr Fong. Many young people have a high activity level, as well, he says, that keeps them generating far more heat than an older, sedentary person. If a child is overweight, they could certainly feel too warm dressed in winter clothing, Dr Fong says. Fat is insulating to the body, so heavier weight children probably do not feel the cold.

Despite what your grandmother told you, Dr Fong says it is not being chilled that causes illness. There are several factors that work to make it appear that the myth is true, though. “First,” says Dr Fong, “colds usually occur in the winter, when viruses thrive. Second, closed up houses make it easier for germs brought home from school and outside to spread. The third thing is that if you are outside long enough, even dressed warmly in a jacket and hat, your face is still exposed, probably. When cold air in the nose is warmed by increased blood circulation, the nose will run and it may become congested, the longer you are out and the lower the temperature. That sets you up for an infection.” So while it might seem like being chilly is the cause of an illness, it is a coincidence.

Finally, it is simply not possible to catch a cold no matter how poorly one dresses, Dr Fong says, unless there is exposure to the rhinovirus.

Whether an elementary-aged school child wears winter outerwear or not varies from school to school, but rules concerning recess carry a lot of weight at that age level. “They can’t go out to recess if they are not dressed appropriately,” says Donna Norling, a secretary in the main office of Hawley Elementary. “That means this time of year they must have a jacket and maybe a hat.” By and large, though, she guesses that less than five percent of the Hawley students elect to go without a jacket in winter. There are a few, she says, who show up in T-shirts and shorts, but she believes that they actually do not feel the cold the way adults feel it. “Mostly we see them wearing sweatshirts; that seems to be the fashion now,” she says.

St Rose students third grader Michael Cirone and fifth grader Matt Ritelli offer another reason kids shed their coats in winter. “It’s hard to move,” says Michael. “When you play, it’s hard to move your arms [in a coat.]” Matt says a winter jacket is “too big. You can’t play basketball and shoot balls when you have one on.” Matt’s classmate, Taylor Brady, adds, “They’re too poufy!”

Jill Schmidt, the nurse at St Rose, and Principal Mary Maloney think that one reason kids do not like to wear a coat in winter is that they dislike carrying a coat around. “And they have so many things to remember,” says Ms Schmidt, that a coat is just one more nuisance. Most of the students at this Church Hill Road school are good about dressing properly, though, says Ms Maloney. “They are told to come prepared. And if they want to go out to recess, they need to be dressed for the weather.”

Middle Gate Elementary School Principal Judy Liestman says that the parents at Middle Gate are pretty vigilant about how their children are dressed in winter. “I think it is because it is particularly windy at Middle Gate, where we are situated. It gets cold and parents know it,” she says. “It is pretty rare that we get kids who don’t dress for the weather. We also don’t allow them out to recess without coats and hats. They don’t want to miss recess.”

What bothers Pat Phillips, the nurse at Reed Intermediate School, is that parents drop off children at school in the morning dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, and then expect the school to let the child take the bus home and walk from the bus stop to their house in clothing not suited to winter weather. “The school is responsible for a child from the time they get to school until they get home. There have been times when we have not let a child get on the bus in the afternoon because they are not dressed for the cold.”

As with the elementary schools, the intermediate school has a recess policy regarding weather appropriate dress. “On a warmer day,” says Ms Phillips, “the children need one layer. They need two layers on a really cold day to go out to recess, and we are pretty good about making sure that happens.”

“Are [young people] truly comfortable in lighter clothing?” questions Dr Fong. “Some are doing it as a statement of defiance, a sort of statement of independence.” His advice to teenagers adverse to winter wear? “Don’t overdo it.”