New York City's public schools have a problem on their hands, and in their carpets and chairs: bedbugs. According to the New York Daily News, Big Apple classrooms ?are experiencing a spike in confirmed cases? of the pest??336 in the first two months of this school year compared with 135 in the same stretch last year.? Brianna Simmons, a fifth grader, was shocked by the news: ?I was, like, ?OMG, there's bedbugs in the school.'? OMG, indeed. The city's Education Department, however, is not overly bugged by the insectan findings and avowed that the numbers do not indicate an epidemic. ?We do not have infestations,? said department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. Tell that to young Miss Simmons.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow