Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday schools can begin to safely reopen even if all teachers are not yet vaccinated and the director of the CDC said the same thing. But teachers’ unions have said it’s more than just a vaccine. Jessica Aguirre spoke to UCSF Dr. Peter Chin-Hong for more.
Oakland parents, students protest for in-person learning; union wants to reimagine return to class
Oakland parents and students protest to open schools. Allie Rasmus reports
OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland students and their parents held a socially-distanced Zoom-In protest outside of Oakland Tech High School Friday morning, to voice their support for a plan to reopen schools.
All of Oakland Unified School District s 36,000 students have been doing distance-learning instruction since March. Schools around the world have been open. Schools in the Bay Area are open. The science is completely clear - there s no reason to wait, said Oakland Unified School District alum and parent Lauren Hunt.
The State Board of Education in California voted unanimously to prepare to apply for more flexible standardized testing options this year as nearly 80% of students across the state continue with distance learning.
States are required to conduct standardized tests every year in math, English language arts and science, according to both state laws and the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. When schools shut their buildings in March last year due to the pandemic, however, state officials said districts did not have to administer the tests, pending getting a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education under then-Secretary Betsy DeVos. The department quickly granted waivers to all states relieving them of their testing obligations.
Aaron Bergh, owner of Calwise Spirits Co. in Paso Robles, says Gov. Newsom is standing in the way of businesses getting back on their feet.
A California teacher has provoked outrage for a tweet dismissing rich white parents for their concerns about their children’s mental health amid school closures, arguing that it only feeds the kids’ sense of entitlement. All the rich white parents suddenly concerned about mental health can take a seat, wrote Bethany Meyer, a special education teacher with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), in a now-deleted tweet. Meyer deleted the tweet after it angered parents.