Classrooms without air conditioning leave students at a disadvantage

By Audrey Kim
Staff Writer

Days when it is extremely hot, it is hard for students to focus for an hour in a humid environment without any air-conditioning. Students in the newly renovated classrooms have an inequitable advantage over the French students because the other students have the luxury of being in an air-conditioned classroom while the French students have to suffer.

Because of the oven-like structure of the History Building and no functioning air conditioning system, the French classrooms retain excess heat, which cause the indoor temperatures to soar to 90°F. At Costa, the History Building is the oldest and the only building without air conditioning.

The conditions of the classrooms in the History Buildings present an issue of an unsafe learning environment, which contravenes the Williams vs State of California Supreme Court case, which cited the building as inadequate, unsafe, and an unhealthy facility

The oppressive heat and the absence of air conditioning in the French classrooms fail to comply with Senate Bill 550 and Article V of the Master Agreement between MBUSD and MBUTA, both of which call for a safe working environment monitoring of posing threats to the health and safety of students and staff.

The deprivation of classrooms with safe temperatures presents an issue of inequality between French students and students that take other languages. Article 13, of the Master Agreement between MBUSD and MBUTA, and the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 (Assembly Bill 537) was enacted to specifically prohibit discrimination against students and staff in schools.

French students learning in 90° heat have an unfair disadvantage, unlike the students in air-conditioned classrooms. One Oregon study found that students working in three different temperature settings had strikingly different results on exams, suggesting that the temperature is a major factor for educational purposes and undermines performance.

Many may argue that people survive in different parts of the world and have survived in the past without air conditioning. However, we attend Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach in the 21th century. If $67.4 million can be spent on construction, a couple thousand dollars could be spent on purchasing an air conditioning system.

The French classroom needs air conditioning. Students with air conditioned classrooms have an unfair advantage over those who do not have that luxury.