During a typical summer break, Alma Lagunas’ sons, 10 and 17, would be outside playing soccer or basketball and riding their bikes in their East LA neighborhood. But this year, the family has been isolated behind closed doors and windows. Going outside has meant smoke, unhealthy air and now, being hit with the worsening smell of rotting food from the Lineage warehouse a few blocks away.
“It is stressful; I worry a lot about my children’s emotional well-being, because they are used to playing outside and doing sports… but since June 17th, we haven’t been able to do that,” Lagunas said in Spanish.
As the smell worsens and cleanup efforts continue, Lagunas worries about what will happen if the warehouse is not cleared by the time her 10-year-old starts fifth grade at Eastman Avenue Elementary School, less than a mile away.
Teachers at nearby middle school Stevenson College and Career Preparatory say they have not been given direction by the district on how to keep their students safe. The first day of classes is Aug. 12 — two days before the 45-day cleanup deadline set by LA Mayor Karen Bass. Lineage said at a town hall meeting at Stevenson last week that they would do their best to meet the goal, which it acknowledged was “aggressive.”
For Marcela Chagoya, who’s been a special education teacher at Stevenson for nearly three decades, the cleanup deadline is not soon enough.
“We want to know what the district is doing to make sure that all the surrounding schools have clean air,” Chagoya said. She wonders: Is the school replacing HVAC filters? Are they keeping track of the air quality? Will students be allowed outside for P.E. class? How will the schools manage the vermin and flies that have been seen around the warehouse?
So far, the Los Angeles Unified School District has not provided any direction on back-to-school protocol changes regarding the warehouse fire, Chagoya said.
“We want to make sure that they (LAUSD) know that it’s not something that we are ignoring as educators for our students. We want answers, and we want action from them,” she added.
Chagoya is the East Area chair for United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents about 35,000 educators across LA. On Wednesday, Chagoya signed on to a letter from the UTLA East Area Steering Committee to LAUSD leadership — including LAUSD Superintendent Andrés E. Chait, East Area Superintendent Lourdes Ramirez-Ortiz and School Board Member Rocío Rivas — urging them to act to protect students on the Eastside.
Chagoya has witnessed her students and community bear the brunt of environmental disasters for decades, including the Exide Technologies plant in Vernon that contaminated the soil of homes, schools and parks in Boyle Heights and East LA with lead and the more recent East LA oil spill in March.
“Our students should not have to face greater health and environmental risks simply because of the community they live in,” she said.
In the letter, the committee asks the district leadership to:
- Conduct or commission independent testing of soil, air quality, drinking water, irrigation systems and outdoor learning spaces at all East Area schools that may have been impacted.
- Test school gardens and edible crops before students resume harvesting or planting.
- Inspect all HVAC systems and replace air filtration units and portable air purifier filters where necessary.
- Publicly release all environmental testing results as well as the underlying raw data so that families, independent experts and community organizations can conduct their own technical review.
- Implement ongoing monitoring and mitigation for odors, flies, rodents and other pests associated with prolonged decomposition and cleanup activities.
- Develop clear protocols outlining the criteria for determining when a campus is safe for students and staff to occupy.
- Provide regular updates to school communities throughout the cleanup process and continue monitoring conditions for as long as cleanup activities remain underway.
“Our students deserve to return to campuses that have been thoroughly assessed and determined to be safe for learning,” the letter reads.
A few days after the fire on June 17, poor air quality led LAUSD to temporarily relocate several schools hosting summer programs. Earlier this month, the district offered cash assistance of $250 to some families living near the fire.
In a statement to Boyle Heights Beat, an LAUSD spokesperson said the district is prepared to “continue these efforts as needed with the start of the fall semester.”
According to the district statement, LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety will monitor air quality in and around school sites, “with additional testing planned before the first day of school.” To improve air quality inside the schools, the district will be “adjusting airflow to limit outdoor contaminants entering classrooms and upgrading or replacing HVAC filtration systems where appropriate,” according the the district spokesperson. The district did not immediately answer questions about whether Eastman or Stevenson would be getting upgrades.
Lagunas hopes that the district will also consider switching to online learning while the cleanup continues to not expose students to the air outside.
She recognizes the challenges online learning could bring — during the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and online classes took a negative toll on her older son’s mental health — but she also worries about the long-term impacts of the air her children would be breathing in their classrooms.
So now, to combat her 10-year-old’s restlessness and isolation, Lagunas signed him up for baseball at Ramon Garcia Recreation Center and swim lessons at Belvedere Community Regional Park, hoping to get some fresh air away from the warehouse. The smell sometimes travels that way, too, she said, but it’s better than being at home.
On top of advocating for her children’s well-being, Lagunas also wants Lineage to be held accountable for the destruction they’ve caused in her neighborhood. Lagunas is part of Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización, a community group of parents that advocate for neighborhood schools and fight against privatized education. At the Lineage town hall meeting last week and a press conference the week prior, Lagunas and other members of Eastside Padres urged Lineage to clean up their mess and leave the community for good.
“Why should we have to change our lives because of someone else? That seems unfair to me,” Lagunas said.
