To the editor: Your editorial on the lack of air conditioning in Los Angeles-area schools notes that “children are returning to school during the worst heat of the year.” This is the only acknowledgement of an unaddressed solution that could go a long way toward mitigating this impending catastrophe.
Why on earth do classes start in the hottest month of the year? Not to mention that many people are on vacation in August.
Why not start classes later and finish in June, the month known in Los Angeles as the cool and reliable “June darkness” month? No need for air conditioning.
Sara R. Nichols, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I grew up in Monrovia in the mid-1960s. Temperatures reached 90°F and sometimes even 100°F.
We had no air conditioning in our school, but we survived and did well with fans and regular water breaks. The nuns wore their black habits. I don't know how they survived these extremes.
Stop trying to turn us into softies by installing air conditioning in every classroom, apartment, house and workplace. People must learn to cope with adversity. Adversity makes us stronger.
Henry Nowakowski, Orange
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To the editor: Your editorial about the lack of air conditioning in some 650 elementary and secondary classrooms in the Los Angeles Unified School District was deeply disturbing. Children, like adults, cannot learn in such an environment, and who knows how many children are not even attending school for that reason?
What if LAUSD created a “Keep ‘Em Cool” program whereby interested members of the public could donate suitable new air conditioning units or the money to purchase them? If each affected school posted exactly what it needed, this information could be posted on the district website and the units would then be shipped directly to the schools in question.
Alternatively, the district could create a “Keep 'Em Cool” fund to which members of the public could contribute, with assurances from the district that the money would be spent quickly to acquire and install the units at schools in need.
Large capacity window air conditioners cost between $750 and $1,000 each. At this price point, and with the right advertising, we would be pleasantly surprised to know how many people are willing to pitch in so our elementary and middle school children can stay cool enough to study.
Chris May, Pacific Palisades
