On Wednesday morning, educators, staff, and students at Burbank Middle School in Highland Park arrived to find their school blanketed in ash. It was immediately clear this would not be a normal day. By 9:40 a.m., the power failed — even the backup generator for safety lights was out. Staff used flashlights from their emergency kits to navigate pitch-black stairwells. The principal scrambled to move students to the main building, and educators did their best to maintain calm amid the chaos. It wasn’t until 2:00 p.m. that the school was finally ordered to shut down.
This failure wasn’t unique to Burbank Middle School. Across Los Angeles, students, parents, and educators were thrown into unnecessary danger and confusion due to the district’s flat-footed response to the wildfire crisis.
Parents who sent their children to school that morning and commuted to work were forced to leave their jobs to pick them up. Those in more precarious positions or further regions had to rely on family, friends, or even educators to care for their children and hope for the best as parts of the city were engulfed in flames. One educator at Betty Plasencia Elementary got into a car accident after finally seeing students off, as by then many traffic lights had stopped working.
Schools district-wide were closed only after United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), alongside other local labor unions, demanded action. This lack of planning underscores a broader crisis: our schools are woefully unprepared for the escalating challenges of the climate crisis, and our kids are paying the price.
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Auteur: Julie Van Winkle
