why are all these schools closing if they don't have a/c? i grew up in long island and i remember having to go to school on days like this and i survived! what's different now?

you have to ask? If there is a heat alert out there and these classrooms are horribly hot then they should close early. When we were kids (I'm 40) the classrooms didn't have A/C but the rarely did we have to deal with the temps near or at 100 degrees without the heat index on top of it. I think it's ridiculous for adults to think it's ok for a dc to be in a oven all day long for hours without relief