Metro Vancouver schools close Monday due to heatwave

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Virtually all Lower Mainland schools still in session for the year are closed Monday due to the heatwave setting in across the region.

The extreme temperatures forecast for the beginning of the week has many districts telling students to stay home, despite the academic year coming to an end for a number of schools in just days.

The notices started coming in over the weekend, as teachers across the province expressed major concerns about the soaring mercury.

“No one should be in a non air conditioned school, in 30 to 42 degree weather,” BC Teachers’ Federation President Terri Mooring said over the weekend, after being told it would be up to each district to decide whether to move forward with classes.

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Temperatures are expected to hit into the 30s and even into the 40s in many parts of the Lower Mainland.

“We have significant concerns about students riding school buses, long distances with no air conditioning, and then spending their day in a non air conditioned school,” Mooring said.

School Closures: With extreme weather conditions during this heat wave, out of an abundance of caution all LangleySchoolDistrict sites will be closed to students/staff on Mon. June 28. Please check email, school, or District website for updates on Monday: https://t.co/Y5s0szR1LL pic.twitter.com/xDjb2Begfy

— Langley Schools (@LangleySchools) June 27, 2021

According to Mooring, the BCTF was told closures would be made on a district-by-district basis. She suggested this makes sense in certain cases.

“There are there are schools with air conditioning, that is a place where your families might prefer their children. However, in schools with no air conditioning and that’s our prime concern,” she said.

As the heat warning for Vancouver has escalated to an Extreme Heat Alert, there will be no school instruction/classes at any #VSB39 schools tomorrow (Monday, June 28, 2021). The District asks parents/caregivers to please keep their children at home. pic.twitter.com/DqgQ1Kd3qv

— Vancouver School Board (@VSB39) June 28, 2021

Almost all school districts that have not yet wrapped up for the summer have announced closures on Monday, June 28.

And though families are being asked to keep their kids at home, one teacher in the Vancouver school district says high schools will still welcome any students who show up.

However, she says classrooms are just too hot.

“So one of my colleagues has a thermometre in her classroom and she recorded 40 degrees in her class on Friday, which was ridiculous. And I’ve heard, anecdotally, that other teachers have also found those kind of temperatures in their classrooms,” she told NEWS 1130.