Do you doubt that there are millions of Americans out there who wouldn't support this?

/

(unless you live in europe)

People in Europe and Great Britain are dying for (lack of) air conditioning in the current heat wave hitting the old world. The response of their governments?

In England, they’re forcing homeowners to rip out a/c units in the name of Mother Gaia.

The British Government Prefers Its Citizens Well Done

And in France, the communists have banned parent-supplied a/c units “because not every school’s parents can afford to supply them, and Marx knows we won’t.

Suffer the Little Children, France Insists

…. But it is the situation in Nîmes, a city of about 148,000 in a lovely part of the south of France. Actually, I've been in the south of France, and all the parts are lovely (except Marseille, of course), but I digress.

The region is suffering a record-breaking, early-summer heat wave with temperatures soaring as high as 40–44°C, the way the French reckon it, or 104–111°F in actual degrees. This is when Americans would set the thermostat to 68° (actual degrees) or maybe go see a movie at a theater where they keep it that temp all the time.

But at the École Primaire La Planette school in Nîmes, they have no air conditioning — naturellement — and according to Miss Jo on X and other sources, a child there "recently fainted because of the heat," even while "classes were being taught in corridors to get out of the heat."

Parents of the students there did what parents in America would almost certainly do in a similar situation, and they raised money to buy five portable air conditioning units for the school. The community got so involved that the parents needed just three days to raise the required €2,000.

So far, so good.

But Mayor Vincent Bouget is an actual member of the Parti communiste français (PCF), and if there's one thing Communists can't stand, it's the community doing stuff. Bouget ordered the school to remove the A/C because "it sets a precedent," and "in some neighborhoods, parents don’t have the means to act."

I mean, I guess those parents could hold a fundraiser like the other parents did. The community seemed pretty excited to jump in and help.

But no.