Parents in California demand schools provide shade after one playground hits 145F in brutal heatwave

Parts of state are dealing with worst heatwave of the year

Parents at a California elementary school have demanded that a shaded space is provided for children to play outdoors in the midst of a brutal heatwave that has swept much of California.

The Lockwood Elementary School in the East Hollywood area of Los Angeles is among scores of schools in Southern California being impacted by high heat this week.

With school back in session across the state and temperatures in Los Angeles expected to stay in the high 90s through the beginning of next week, thousands of students will not be able to safely spend significant amounts of time outside on their campuses.

Though temperatures are expected to cool at the end of next week, the effects of intensifying climate change mean that Los Angeles and cities across California will see more and more school days with severe heat in the coming years — making equipping campuses for it a pressing need.

The Los Angeles Times reported that more than 600 schools are listed in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s “Greening Index,” which ranks schools on the basis of how much asphalt and green space they have and have access to.

150 of those schools are in high need of more green space, with a disproportionate number of those schools located in majority non-white South and East LA.

In total, just 16 per cent of schools in the Index — and just ten percent of elementary schools — currently have the recommended amount of green space.

Earlier this week, LA school board president Kelly Gonez introduced a resolution to establish a minimum of 30 percent green space on every campus in the city by the year 2032.

“We urgently need a systemwide solution to expand green space, particularly for low-income communities of color that are most likely to be harmed by climate change and extreme heat,” Gonez said as quoted by the Times.

“This is an opportunity for L.A. Unified to correct those inequities on a system level and to expand green spaces where the problem is most urgent.”