School safety officials have been arguing about this for years. Back in the 1970s, the National Fire Protection Association declared that untreated paper shouldn't be allowed to cover more than a small percentage of classroom wall surface.
Now experts aren't so sure. Virtually all schools have sprinkler systems, and even some prevention activists think the likelihood of disaster caused by excess paper is very small. "As long as the building is sprinklered, it kind of seems like overkill," says Illinois fire fighter David Cowan. The Fire Protection Association apparently agrees. This year, the association lifted its previous recommendation that paper post-ups be limited to 20 percent of wall space.
But if the danger has disappeared, quite a few local governments don't seem to believe it. The fire department in Madison, Wisconsin, this year approved a 20 percent cap on school paper proliferation-- although it delayed the effective date until next March so it could figure out what kinds of paper to count against the limit. The Massachusetts State Board of Fire Prevention has just adopted a 50 percent paper rule, a compromise with hard-liners who wanted 30 perent.
Although Cowan thinks these restrictions are an overreaction to highly publicized fires, he also figures they won't do any harm. Others think they could. Taking the paper down is "absolutely crazy," says Marlene Dickerman, a retired sixth-grade teacher. "Things on the wall are used to make clear what's not clear in the books."
