The Brief

Third grader Lenny Rodriguez enjoys playing and reading in his school’s yard, but it can get extremely hot outside.

“Sometimes, I’ve experienced heat waves. My feet were burning even when I had my shoes on,” Rodriguez says. “The playground is missing some shade.”

A dire need

Rodriguez’s school, Beachy Avenue Elementary, is in Arleta, near Pacoima and Panorama City. The temperature in these neighborhoods can hit highs well over 100 degrees during different parts of the year. The asphalt in the San Fernando Valley has registered 142 degrees on its surface. But schools all over the Los Angeles Unified School District are feeling the effects of rising heat.

According to the Los Angeles County Climate Vulnerability Assessment, extremely heat-prone regions of L.A. could see 30 or more additional days with temperatures above 90 degrees by 2050.

And that hot weather could stretch further into the school year, says V. Kelly Turner, associate professor of urban planning and geography at UCLA and associate director of the Luskin Center for Innovation.

“That's just going to be how it is in the future,” Turner says.

Turner and her colleagues have studied extreme heat and the role design plays in how people experience it. They found that “schools are some of the hottest places in communities” as a result of how they’ve been built.

Campuses all over the district, from West Hollywood to Watts, are asphalt jungles, and fixing it, says Turner, is “not just as simple as putting up trees.”

The indoors are a problem too: Many schools still lack air conditioning.

Turner says it’s important to think about schools as community resources, especially for kids who come from historically disinvested and disadvantaged communities.

“If kids live in a home without air conditioning or a cool place to go on hot days, then come to school, which also lacks cooling inside and shade outside, their core body temperatures are never getting down to safe levels,” Turner explains. “That's going to cause them to have difficulty concentrating … and it's going to be very, very hard for a child to learn in that context.”

Research shows that heat can negatively impact students’ ability to learn, which results in lower academic performance. Conversely, other studies have found that students benefit from time spent in green spaces and that exposure to nature can help kids focus better.

The demand for cooler schools

Parent groups and climate advocates have been trying to bring attention to this issue for years — and many say action has been a long time in coming.

Robin Mark, the L.A. program director for Trust for Public Land, says it’s important for people to understand that greening schools is not a landscaping project, it’s about school infrastructure that supports student learning, well-being and climate resilience.

“It’s not a nice-to-have,” Mark says, “It’s not really cool that the yard is so pretty. That’s not what we’re going for. What we’re going for is that we’re creating environments for students to thrive.”

First graders at Brainard Elementary demonstrate the very lengthy process of lining up, socially distanced, outside.

(

Kyle Stokes

/

LAist

)

The district's efforts so far

Last year LAUSD took a big step forward in addressing concerns. In June 2022, district officials allocated $58 million to outdoor education initiatives, including greening. A few months later, then-LAUSD board president Kelly Gonez authored a resolution calling for Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to develop a plan to ensure school campuses are at least 30% green by 2035.

But Gonez says she is still waiting. The plan was supposed to be given to the board in February.

"We need a systemic approach from the district," Gonez says. "Not to do this in a piecemeal fashion, because we know that's far from sufficient. It requires a really significant transformation in most cases because of the way the playgrounds have been set up. It's not aligned to the 21st century environment our kids live in.”

According to a district spokesperson, the Green Schoolyards For All Plan will be given to the board members in the coming weeks. It will include a prioritized list of the highest-need schools.

Since the pledge to green schools, district officials say they’ve met with stakeholders and experts, updated their data systems to include a pollution indicator and surveyed 349 people about what they think should be prioritized.

District officials say that there have been various greening projects underway that include modernizing campuses, creating school gardens and planting new trees. But the reality is that it will take a lot of money and a lot of time to reach the goals outlined by the Green Schoolyards initiative.

The funding challenge

More than 600 LAUSD campuses do not meet that 30% threshold. Even if the district prioritizes elementary schools, as promised, more than 200 of those campuses are less than 10% green. And some of the schools require infrastructure upgrades before greening can even happen.

LAUSD secured $400 million from Measure RR to modernize schools, including green efforts, and collected $100 million in other funds.

Funding has also come through partnerships with nonprofit groups and state grants, but it's nowhere near enough. District officials say it’s going to take an additional $4 billion to ensure all schools have enough green space and students are kept cool.

Officials say additional funding might have to come from another bond, which will require voter buy-in.

But even if LAUSD had all the money it needed, it would take decades to complete all of these projects. During a recent school board meeting, member Nick Melvoin estimated it could take up to 15 years to green the top 50 highest-need campuses, based on a district calculation that it would take about three to four years to update around a half-dozen schools.

“We are by no means mission accomplished,” Mark says. “There's a lot of learning on all of our sides about what we can do on a school campus, so that everybody's needs are being met, particularly the students and the teachers."

'Cool' pavement v. trees

While district officials have yet to provide the school board with a final plan for how they will achieve these green goals, some advocates have already questioned how the money is being spent.

For example, some of the ongoing bond investments include $300 million for "playground and campus exterior upgrades" that include the use of "cool pavement" coating that is designed to bring down surface temperatures. But parent advocates like Angelenos for Green Schools co-founder Aleigh Lewis argues that natural spaces should be prioritized.

She says understands the need for pavement for sports and other play but believes trees, grass and other natural surfaces should be prioritized over repaving surfaces with a reflective coating.

“You have all this money and you could do so much more for every school and cool them down,” Lewis says.

A community survey shared with the LAUSD school board in mid-October showed that stakeholders, including parents, teachers and students, want to prioritize trees and shade structures over other cooling efforts.

Gonez says there is room for all of it. Some schools have asked for the specialized cool pavement as part of much needed repaving but she agrees that the district “can't just do that alone.”

One small step to a greener school yard

Beachy Avenue Elementary, where Lenny Rodriguez goes to school, now has a new “reading garden” where students can sit outside in a cool, natural space. There are two blue circular platforms with a stretch of grass in between, and new trees that, once they are full grown, will offer shade for students.

Beachy Avenue Elementary's new reading garden is one of the first initiatives toward greening the school to meet the district's 30% goal by 2035.

(

Aaricka Washington

/

LAist

)

“I think this project is really helping our schools get better with shade on global warming,” Rodriguez says. “So, overall, I think this is a good thing for us in this district. We’re going to grow up with it.”

But that garden was five years in the making, notes Beachy Principal Lisa Dachs-Ornelas. She says she called on Gonez, her district board member, to help secure more than $100,000 for the reading garden.

And, still, there’s so much more that needs to be done. According to the district’s Greening Index, Beachy is almost 80% asphalt.

“It is very hot out here and the kids sometimes don't play," says Dachs-Ornelas. “They'll go under a shade and then they'll just socialize with a friend because it's too hot to play kickball on the asphalt.”

Gonez acknowledges the district is coming late to the climate crisis. Though some LAUSD schools might have been able to add a garden or plant some trees, green campuses haven’t been a district priority, she says, largely due to other issues officials had to handle: overcrowding, aging facilities and the pandemic.

But now that there is some collective attention on the issue from the state and local officials, Gonez emphasizes: “I think we need to do more, and I think we need to do more faster.”

In a cozy dance studio in Garden Grove, dancers of all experience levels, ages and backgrounds flock to Queer Latin Dance OC to learn the steps to salsa, cumbia and bachata.

For many, the dance class is more than educational — it’s a place to get away from it all, to find community and to uplift one another through art.

When Rodrigo Marquez founded Queer Latin Dance OC at the beginning of this year, he said he was filling a gap in Orange County that often lacks safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community.

“I wanted to make creative communities for us to learn in a safe environment,” Marquez said. “Everyone's here to learn, and I want the pressure of whatever's going on in the world, just to forget for the next hour.”

Queer Latin Dance OC meets three times a week to learn the steps to salsa, cumbia and bachata.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

What are the dance lessons like? 

When creating his teaching plan, Marquez said he considers the range of experience his students might have. Everybody starts somewhere, he added, and the hardest part is showing up.

“It is scary, but if you're already showing up, then just jump in and just forget about the world. It's a great distraction, and dancing makes you feel better,” Marquez said.

Philip Lee, an elementary school teacher from Tustin, took his first class with the group Monday night, trying the quick steps of salsa.

“I had a stressful day. … All my stress that I had in my neck and upper back just kind of went away,” Lee said, adding that the high energy in the room is infectious. “It was nice just laughing with people in the community and meeting new people.”

Lee said the dance lesson gave him a space to be with community.

“The queer community specifically, and just kind of let my guard down and just be free and laugh and enjoy being me and celebrated for a love for the arts,” Lee said. “That's not a space that is always safe.”

Before taking lessons at Queer Latin Dance OC, Melba Rivera said she came in with zero dance experience.

“You come as you are. No matter what level you're at or how you identify or what your experience is, everybody's here and everybody's learning,” Rivera said. “It's a very encouraging and motivating space.”

Salsa and bachata are social dances, Marquez said, but one thing that makes his class unique to many is that regardless of gender identity, anyone can follow or lead.

Typically, the lead falls to the male dancer, and women follow. Marquez said it was important that no one feels pressured to be one or the other.

“That's why I created this, so people like me can just come and learn, not be expected to be in a gender role based on how they look,” Marquez said. “They want to dance how they feel.”

Why it matters

Taryn Heiner said, especially in Orange County, it’s challenging to find spaces that are queer-friendly and queer-open.

“That's really what makes this space so kind and warm and welcoming,” Heiner said. “We have all that base understanding of respecting one another, no matter who they are, who they love and what they do.”

Growing up in Orange County, not every room you walk into is a safe space, Rivera added.

“So walking into a room like this, where everybody's friendly, everybody's learning, everybody's just here for the same purpose to get better, to support each other, is really important,” Rivera said. “Not just in the class, but [in] the friendships we make outside of the classroom.”

Outside of dance class, Marquez’s students meet up for monthly hikes and other get-togethers. Marquez said it is a privilege and an honor to bring people together through his love for dance.

“I've seen people become friends since January, and I see them practice outside of practice,” Marquez said. “I've always had a dream to do my own dance classes, but to do it in a way where people can connect and just be themselves. It's far greater than that.”

Queer Latin Dance OC offers lessons to dancers of all experience levels and has created a new community hub in Orange County.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

Want to dance? 

Salsa, cumbia and bachata classes are held three nights a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Classes are $20 per session, but Marquez also offers a free beginner salsa class every Monday.

You can register for the class of your choice here. Payments are taken in person.

Border Patrol agents have been roving from city to city over the last 15 months, far from their home bases in California and elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border, engaged in an unprecedented mass deportation campaign.

A collaboration between CalMatters, Evident Media and Bellingcat has tracked these agents, documenting their tactics on the ground and through mountains of video footage, since their first proof-of-concept raid in Bakersfield in January 2025.

Exactly one year later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, followed weeks later by the killing of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent.

Our investigation shows that beyond those two shootings, immigration agents engaged in a pattern of force and questionable detention, aggressive tactics that courts have said likely violated the Constitution, as they moved from Bakersfield to Los Angeles, and then Chicago and Minneapolis.

In each city, federal courts stepped in to restrain them from violating civil liberties in that jurisdiction. Agents later deployed to another city. The video evidence suggests agents’ tactics became more brazen with each stop.

Under President Donald Trump, immigration agents have operated without typical public accountability. Many agents wear masks. Incident reports are largely hidden from the public.

“We are in a completely uncharted world now with these masked agents,” said John Roth, who served as inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security under Presidents Barack Obama and Trump.

“The first thing that you do when you give an agent a gun and a badge and the authority over American people is to make sure that they follow the Constitution, period,” he said.

In this new film, we focus on the activity of five agents from the US-Mexico border whose identities we’ve been able to confirm.

Watch the documentary

We are not aware of any disciplinary action taken against these agents. DHS did not respond to requests for comment; the individual agents either declined to comment or didn’t respond to calls or emails.

We showed the incidents to Roth and Steve Bunnell, former DHS general counsel. Both have testified before Congress, raising the alarm about what they see as a dismantling of the department’s accountability and credibility. Roth called the incidents “difficult to watch.”

“There are sort of two essential components of DHS and law enforcement generally being effective, and that’s trust and credibility,” Bunnell said. “And they have lost those things to the extent they had them.”