{"id":417847,"date":"2026-07-30T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417847\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:30:07","slug":"boyle-heights-parents-demand-safety-answers-ahead-of-schools-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417847\/","title":{"rendered":"Boyle Heights parents demand safety answers ahead of schools’ reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With two weeks before school starts, families in Boyle Heights are gripped with concern about the conditions and safety at eight campuses within a one-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse fire, schools located in and near neighborhoods beset with the stench of rotting food<\/a>, fly swarms and rats.<\/p>\n

Parent Myrna Silva, who lives a block away from the Lineage site, is among the scores of parents worried about how their children \u2014 who attend three early education and care centers, four elementary schools and a middle school near the burned hulk of the warehouse \u2014 will cope with the odor and vermin infestations that have kept them indoors since the June 17 fire erupted<\/a> and upended their lives.<\/p>\n

Her main concern is about the noxious stench of rotting food<\/a>. Will that prevent her children from concentrating on schoolwork or having a full school experience that includes outdoor recreation?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a priority that my kids be able to play outside at school,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is what they are used to and they need to de-stress. This is not healthy for their mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAUSD responds with tests, cleaning and air filters<\/p>\n

There are no plans to delay the Aug. 12 opening of nearby campuses, transfer students to other schools or switch to online learning. All schools will open as normal \u2014 although operations will be tightly monitored and affected campuses are being scrubbed clean inside and out. <\/p>\n

When the blaze erupted during summer school session, L.A. Unified moved students to other locations. But the change drove down attendance at summer school, which is optional for students. <\/p>\n

Officials with Los Angeles Unified, which is conducting a series of online meetings for parents, say that schools in the area are clean and safe, that the indoor air quality will meet high standards and students will be kept inside if odors wafting from the warehouse are strong. Principals will decide whether to keep students inside if the odor is too bad to play outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have replaced the air filters at the schools that are impacted,\u201d Supt. Andr\u00e9s E. Chait said in a recent response to a Times query. \u201cPlant managers have been on all summer, so we absolutely have been working with all those schools, and we\u2019ll continue to all the way through leading up to August 12th.\u201d<\/p>\n

Extra safety measures have included dust and air sampling that is ongoing at ten campuses in the Boyle Heights area, said Carlos Torres, director of the school district\u2019s Office of Environmental Health and Safety. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enough information to show that our schools are safe,\u201d Torres told parents during a Thursday evening webinar. \u201cThe agencies have said that the areas are safe to reoccupy.\u201d He said the testing reports will be posted on the district website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Region East Supt. Lourdes Ramirez-Ortiz said district officials will be knocking on doors to ask how they can help make families feel safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to make families feel safe, healthy, and learning,\u201d Ramirez-Ortiz said. \u201cThe school site is the safest place for our students to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilberto Martinez, who is in charge of regional operations, told parents that \u201cduring times of trauma, we want to ensure that these regularly scheduled days, times, activities remain as normal as possible. So we want students to be able to go outside and play.\u201d <\/p>\n

Health concerns mount for parents near Lineage fire schools<\/p>\n

Silva said the summer has been filled with stress. In the summer heat, the family hasn\u2019t used the air conditioner \u2014 at first over fear of bringing in toxic substances from the smoke and then because of the stench from 42,500 tons of rotting food contained within the formerly refrigerated warehouse.<\/p>\n

Her 15-year-old son will be a sophomore at Garfield High \u2014 a little over two miles distant \u2014 and seemingly far enough away. The school district held an opening-of-schools event there on July 21 and, on that day at least, there was no lingering odor. <\/p>\n

But her 10-year-old daughter is entering 6th grade at Stevenson Middle School, about six blocks from their home and within a mile of the fire and, frequently, directly downwind.<\/p>\n

Her persistent concern is about the near-omnipresent odor and whether it will disrupt learning. <\/p>\n

For now, she doesn\u2019t allow her kids to play outside and they also did not attend summer after-school programs once the fire erupted. They are stressed and frustrated, Silva said. The odor is too intense even to sit on their patio.<\/p>\n

Teachers inspect schools<\/p>\n

On Tuesday a delegation from the teachers union toured Eastman Elementary and Stevenson. <\/p>\n

Much of what union Vice President Jessica Rodarte saw was reassuring \u2014 with school managers and officials at pains to explain cleaning and testing efforts. <\/p>\n

She learned that although there has been no soil sampling so far, the district has selectively tested dust because the more recent dust would provide a reading on what was deposited as a result of the fire.<\/p>\n

All classrooms have air conditioners and she was reassured that all filters had been replaced and that the new ones had a high-grade MERV 13 rating. In addition, air purifiers \u2014 with carbon filters to control odor \u2014 would be in every classroom. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are contingency plans to keep the kids inside,\u201d she reported. \u201cThey are planning for an indoor-activity schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still concerned about whether or not there is enough staffing to keep up with pest control,\u201d the rats and flies, Rodarte said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAir quality and pests are an issue that could require closure,\u201d Rodarte said. \u201cSome of the schools are fairly large and where do we relocate?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixth-grade teacher Rafael Rodriguez took a walk-through of Eastman Elementary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what I saw, it\u2019s what I smelled,\u201d said Rodriguez, who teaches at a school outside the odor zone. \u201cWhen I was nearby … the smell was horrible. It was something that we don\u2019t feel that anybody should have to put up with. … We want to make sure that students are able to come back to a safe and healthy environment, and we feel that there are still many concerns that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demand for action<\/p>\n

In Boyle Heights, community members are demanding quicker cleanup action and more health and home safety assistance for the largely lower-income neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lineage fire exposed long-standing environmental injustices impacting Boyle Heights in East L.A. and other areas,\u201d said school board member Roc\u00edo Rivas, who represents the area. \u201cOur schools, our students and families experience real disruptions, including concerns about air quality, health impacts, child care and lost learning opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for the facility to be permanently closed. \u201cCorporate operations should never come at the expense of children\u2019s health and safety,\u201d Rivas said.<\/p>\n

At the current pace, it appears extremely unlikely that the rotting food will be removed by Aug. 12. The removal could continue for several months.<\/p>\n

\u201cLow-income communities of color should not be forced to suffer longer than needed simply because of their class status,\u201d said Elmer Roldan, executive director of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles. \u201cOur elected and business leaders are responsible for caring for our communities, and we are counting on them to move faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes that schools should temporarily relocate if issues are not resolved by the start of the school year. <\/p>\n

Other community leaders spoke in similar terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we get soil samples and inspect the schools and classrooms to determine that our children will not be exposed to toxic chemicals or particulates, we should not send our kids to nearby schools,\u201d said Henry Perez, the head of the community group InnerCity Struggle.<\/p>\n

But moving a school population to another location is no panacea.<\/p>\n

Silva worries, for example, about getting to a campus that is farther away. The family feels safe at Stevenson; transportation would be complicated. <\/p>\n

And on top of worrying about the start of school, Silva said her family is still suffering from headaches, nausea, sore throats, eye irritation, stomach pain, diarrhea and persistent coughing. She also fears for the health of her asthmatic daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not sleep. I had to keep checking that my children were breathing,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With two weeks before school starts, families in Boyle Heights are gripped with concern about the conditions and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[599,167118,2791,3409,3413,1431,3802,413,63788,3410,48,52,51,47,50,49,98153,3607,4265,83353,4574],"class_list":["post-417847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-area","tag-boyle-heights-parent","tag-campus","tag-child","tag-concern","tag-family","tag-fire","tag-food","tag-indoor-air-quality","tag-kid","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-odor","tag-safety","tag-school","tag-silva","tag-student"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}