Tensions between parents and teachers in some areas are heating up as the pandemic continues to keep kids out of school. In Los Angeles, a group of parents and students who are frustrated with distance learning began a “Zoom Blackout” this week to protest school closures. The frustrated parents intend to keep their kids signed out of Zoom and skip classes until students are allowed to return to the classroom.
The parents, whose kids attend schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), began circulating flyers last week urging families to join their protest. “Starting Monday 2/22 for as many days as it takes,” the flyer says. “Enough is enough. We can no longer sit by and wait for UTLA [United Teachers Los Angeles] to come up with more excuses to keep our schools closed!”
By Monday afternoon, photos and video from the protests had made it to social media, including footage of a large group gathered outside of a federal building downtown.
#LAUSD parents and students are rallying at the federal building to start in-person learning immediately, saying you don’t need vaccines for every teacher. They’re calling out the district and teachers union #UTLA for coming up with excuses to keep schools closed @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/KRkEn24bl8
— Josh Haskell (@abc7JoshHaskell) February 22, 2021
Los Angeles isn’t the only place where parents and educators are butting heads over pandemic schooling. In Northern California, an entire school board has been forced to resign after they were caught making disparaging comments about parents who want to reopen schools. On a hot mic during a virtual board meeting, members of the Oakley Union Elementary School District Board of Trustees were reportedly overheard calling parents names and saying it’s “very unfortunate that [parents] want to pick on us because they want their babysitters back.”
California is one of only a few U.S. states with strict COVID-19 school closures still in effect. Some states have fully returned to in-person schooling, while others are practicing hybrid models or offering optional online classes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said schools around the country can safely reopen if case numbers are low and precautionary measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing, are in place.
So far, U.S. schools have not been found to be a major source of COVID-19 transmission.
Still, decisions about school closures and reopenings have proven especially difficult because of the diverse needs of everyone involved. The health and safety of teachers is a huge concern, but parents are also worried about kids struggling with distance learning, falling behind on schoolwork and the impact of distance learning on parents’ ability to work.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to the school debate. In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of President Biden’s leading experts on COVID-19, weighed in on the complex issue of reopening schools by saying his default position is to “try to do everything we can to get back to school safely for the children and for the teachers and other educational personnel.”
Fauci also notes there is no real way to quantify the level of risk. “The risk of a teacher getting infected in the school is likely very much similar to what you would see in the community, but we don’t know that yet,” he explains. “We haven’t done those kind of prospective studies.”
In the absence of definitive answers and clear guidance from leaders, parents and educators will likely continue to struggle with this issue. Both parties want what is best for kids, but that doesn’t mean the safety of teachers and other school staff can be left on the back burner. One of the most significant things people can do to help with the school debate is to continue to follow guidelines to stop the spread of the virus and make communities safer for everyone.
