With a fire burning around Los Angeles’ borders, residents all around the city are afraid for their home, family, and health. In this crisis, many students are repulsed by the district’s decision to continue school, and frankly, I agree.
The fires are burning in the Palisades and Pasadena regions of LA, and although this doesn’t put a school like Hamilton in danger, many students and staff do not live near the school and are in fire-affected areas. The fact that the district is returning to instruction regardless of their situation is extremely unfair and unjust.
While these students are grappling to find a place to sleep and food to eat, and are unsure whether their home is standing, or has turned to ashes, they have to stress about coming to school and attending classes that are completely separate from their present worry.
The district has said absences will be excused for students in evacuation zones. But if these students don’t attend school, which would be completely respectable and understandable, they will fall behind on their classwork, homework, and overall comprehension of their courses. This contradiction is unfair, and even if school were to be called off for these people’s sake only, it would be necessary and morally justifiable.
The confusion, disorientation, and lack of organization that comes with returning to school so shortly after a natural disaster takes away from the ability to learn as we normally would. Currently, at least four staff members at Hamilton are unable to attend because of evacuation from their homes, or because of danger in general from the fire. This means many students are attending classes in which their teacher is not present, and are therefore academically impacted.
If LAUSD were to grant staff and students a few more days to recover from this tragedy, the academic messiness would be far less severe, and students who are not safe from the fire would not have to miss classes and fall behind on their academic success.
