Crowds of Eastside parents and guardians gathered outside Los Angeles Unified School District schools to pick up their children after school officials announced Wednesday morning that more than 200 schools would be closed due to the hazardous air quality caused by fires raging across the L.A. area.
In Boyle Heights, a chaotic scene unfolded with long lines of confused and disappointed parents waiting for their children to be released. One parent outside Sheridan Street Elementary School wondered why she even brought her kid to school in the first place.
Students reported ashes on campus floors, stairs, balconies, and said the inside of their school buildings smelled like smoke. The water at the Roosevelt High pool appeared brown from the ashes. Some students and teachers wore masks. One teacher said she learned about the closures from students.
Roosevelt High students packed the inside of their school gym as their names were called to notify them their parents or guardians had arrived to pick them up.
Robert Bracamontes, 16, a student at Roosevelt’s Math, Science and Technology Magnet Academy, said he didn’t like that the school closure announcement came in late “as the air quality was already rapidly declining.”
“I feel that the only mistake the school made was not announcing the evacuation sooner. With everything else, the school seems to be doing the best it can,” Bracamontes said.
Nancy Soni, an English teacher at Roosevelt High, said they were frustrated by the chaotic events of the day.
“I’m feeling incredibly frustrated because there is no organization, and although it is chaotic, I think there’s definitely precautions that were ignored to avoid the situation, and I think it’s just one of those things where the folks in power who can make the decisions to keep schools open are only keeping them open to uphold capitalistic values, and not necessarily genuine care for our students’ health,” Soni said.
LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho announced a growing list of closures Wednesday morning at an 8 a.m. press conference with other county and city officials.
More than 200 schools in the central and eastern parts of the district are closed. A list of school closures was published shortly after 9 a.m.
In a 2 p.m. update, LAUSD posted a list of schools that would remain closed as of Thursday, Jan. 9, and a list of schools that are open for a minimum day. But by 5 p.m. the district website shared that all LAUSD schools and offices would be closed Thursday, Jan. 9.
LAUSD spokesperson Britt A. Vaughan said the district had “nothing further beyond the statements we’ve provided,” after Boyle Heights Beat asked when and how the district notified parents about the school closures. The Beat also asked about the process in which the students were being released from school.
Photo by Andrew Lopez.
Alex Vasquez, 56, was outside Sheridan Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights just before 11 a.m. Wednesday to pick up his grandson from school. More than 50 people were waiting outside the school.
“This came out of the blue,” Vasquez said. “The parents who are at work and who depend on this school for even after-school programs, they have to find somebody to come and get them,” he said.
An LAUSD teacher in Boyle Heights told a youth reporter with the Beat that school officials should have closed the schools sooner.
“Parents being at work already or students not having anyone to pick them up from school … We could have worked and created a plan to have students stay home given the fact that the air quality was so poor,” said the teacher who wanted to be interviewed anonymously. “Our students shouldn’t be breathing in that air.”
“It’s a great disappointment. I think we did our community a disservice,” the teacher added. “It was very evident last night even as updates were being given at midnight and through the morning, I think we could have prevented this mess.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect all LAUSD schools and offices will be closed Thursday, Jan. 9.
Although the district was late with these decisions, the parents should have just kept their kids at home if air quality was bad. Parents have last say whether to send them to school or not.
I work with lausd high school and middle school out in the valley. We are still impacted by the fires even way out of harms way. The buildings smell like smoke, there is raining ash, and so much stress. I understand lausd wanting to keep schools that don’t have to close still open. But it was a long day of miscommunication and anxiety between the staff and students. Staff just trying to keep schools that don’t going as best as possible while keeping students as safe as possible.
What capitalistic values are being upheld? Or was that just an opportunity to stuff in politics.
Anyway, I feel bad for the kids who after leaving the school live right down the street and have to still breathe in that air. Should have been an evacuated city not just a school.
I had an issue because there were so many parents some driving, there was no parking and many double parked. My kids school didn’t want to let out the kids even if they walked to school alone. It took an hour to get near the school. Double parking made everything worse. With the ash falling and all parents rushing to the school was scary. I am not even in LAUSD but in a charter school. When I finally took my kids home, I still had to go back to work. The ash flying into an office was the same as being outside. Lord Jesus keep us safe.
We are here for our students to provide support, continuity, love, teaching them that even tho there is chaos around the world they can count on us, to be there to persiver in any struggle life has for our students,. Stop the anger the hate, and criticism, show you really care by coming together for our students
We were never informed and no one seen concerned about the air quality at my kids school until I started asking questions!this is very disappointing our kids life were in danger sanpedro has been affected from the fire since Sunday. It’s upsetting that parents have to do the schools job to informed each other about the situation.
I was sad to hear about what they did with the children in the school I went to Roosevelt High. From 1955to1958 I now live Texas Iwill pray for all the people In LA may God bless everyone