Going to school when it’s 115 degrees outside is really uncomfortable. 

Common sense tells us, as has told us since the dawn of time, that uncomfortableness is absolutely not okay.

Thankfully, students at Van Nuys are quick to recognize this truth, often acting in the best interests of personal comfort. We procrastinate on assignments, doze off during lessons and use our phones in class, all of which are completely valid behaviors.

And, according to many students, we should cancel school and stay home suffering through this week’s heat spell. Walking across the school to class or going home feels like torture when you’re drenched in sweat. Paying attention to lectures is impossible in a warm classroom. 

It’s “cruel,” “unethical” and “downright barbaric” to be sending students to school in this weather.

It’s too unpleasant and too hot to learn and continue instruction, after all.

What a joke. 

Constant comfort is a toxic luxury that dulls the mind. Nobody is entitled to it, nor should they want it. That isn’t a ridiculously old-fashioned message, but younger generations tune it out far too often.

Most calls to cancel school are, at heart, just complaints about comfort and convenience. Trying to dodge school because staying at home is more relaxing is an appealing yet unrealistic thought.

It’s true that there are situations in which the best solution to a problem is to avoid it.

A schoolyard fight, an online debate about politics and indeed, certain extreme weather conditions such as storms and local wildfires should be avoided.

But this week’s abnormally hot weather isn’t one of those situations where the risk far outweighs the reward. The key difference between intense heat and other types of extreme weather is that the former is far more navigable.

For instance, LAUSD schools closed on Monday, Aug. 1 in 2023 after Hurricane Hilary had hit Southern California as a very rare tropical storm. 

L.A. County had issued Flash Flood and Tropical Storm warnings alongside guidelines for staying indoors. According to the National Weather Service, areas like Northridge, Van Nuys and Beverly Hills were experiencing heavy rainfall.

Under those conditions, it makes sense for school districts to enact emergency closures. Sending students to school would be tantamount to placing them in harm’s way; as such, closing school was appropriate. There was little students and faculty could do about severe rain and potential flooding.

While the heat we’ve been experiencing is extreme, sending students to school isn’t placing them in harm’s way when they can make obvious choices to stay safe. 

Dressing in lighter and whiter clothing, bringing extra water to stay hydrated and staying in ventilated, cooler areas during lunch and nutrition mitigate serious health risks almost entirely.

Yes, dehydration, heat stroke and heat exhaustion are real and pose threats to students, but are very far from probable so long as students prepare accordingly. Aside from elevated discomfort by nature of the sheer heat throughout the school day, there is no real concern for student safety.

Most, if not all, facilities at Van Nuys High School are air-conditioned. Even in classrooms that have semi-functional units, it isn’t so unbearably hot that instruction should be stopped so abruptly. Classrooms that need more support can request fans to help make the day period more bearable, or classes can be temporarily relocated to a better ventilated area in extreme cases.

Students can prepare for a hot day. Schools can prepare for a hot day. And when simple preparation is so much easier, realistic and less disruptive than closing school down… well, the clear best thing to do is to adapt and overcome.

Making the best of what we’ve got is becoming an increasingly foreign concept for people of all ages. Whether people blame it on current society or on up-and-coming generations, it’s harmful and present all the same.

We should encourage each other to remain resilient and responsible, especially in the face of difficulties like these, helping each other stay hopeful and positive instead of adding to a chorus of complaints that ultimately go nowhere.

It’s uncomfortable now in the same way life is going to be uncomfortable thousands upon thousands of times in the future as we get older. 

We will all go through seasons of our lives that are much more difficult than this. And if we’ve made a habit of avoiding our problems by the time the new ones arrive, life will look pretty grim.

So suck it up, buttercup — it’s in everyone’s best interest.