Parents concerned LAUSD classrooms are getting too hot during heat wave
As a scorching heat wave continues in Los Angeles Wednesday, parents are concerned that classrooms at the Los Angeles Unified School District are getting too hot for students.
One mother said there are unbearable conditions inside her daughter's LAUSD middle school.
"In one of her classes the air conditioning wasn't working so they had to move them to the auditorium but there were two more classes in there, so I don't understand how they're learning," said Antonieta Garcia.
Some kids reported getting sick from the hot temperatures. A substitute teacher from West Adams High School said two students got nosebleeds from the heat.
The teacher sent CBSLA pictures showing the thermostat inside the classroom at 89 degrees.
Reclaim Our Schools LA, an association of parents, educators, students and community members, contends that LAUSD is "completely unprepared" to deal with extreme heat.
"If you think about what it feels like to be in a parking lot on a hot day, this is what kids all over Los Angeles experience every day," said coalition member Aleigh Lewis, co-founder of Angelenos for Green Schools and a parent of two elementary school students. "These low-maintenance schoolyards are often the hottest in any neighborhood."
For students to be able to learn, she said, "They have to be healthy. Green schoolyards are also incredible sites for learning. What is more relevant than kids being able to play outside?"
The comments came at a live-streamed news conference held outside Lorena Street Elementary School in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Members of the group said the school is among the district sites most in need of green space and shade.
Excessive heat warnings will be in place in most of the region through Friday, with some possibly extending into Saturday morning, forecasters said. Searing heat and dry weather have blanketed the area for more than a week.
