The LAUSD Fails Vulnerable Families (Again)

“Please don’t dismiss families that require additional safety measures.”
- Parents Supporting Teachers

On Tuesday, the LAUSD finally released the COVID-19 protocols that will be followed when schools open later this month. To the dismay of families that have members of the household who are at increased risk during this continuing health crisis, these new procedures continue the trend of providing less protection against spreading the virus within the classroom. This is being done despite the fact Los Angeles just experienced another surge of the deadly virus.

Most concerning about the district’s new plans is its reliance on voluntary compliance. When testing at home, parents are only required to upload positive tests to the Daily Pass, even after exposure. This allows those who continue to deny the seriousness of the virus to ignore the threat to other students and skip the testing requirements.

Under the previous protocols, testing was performed at school. Everyone was treated as equal members of the school community and those who tested positive could be immediately removed. This provided protection to all students and their families.

The LAUSD explains the move away from PCR tests by making the claim that because of the “high level of sensitivity” that “can pick up low levels of the virus both before and after infection”, these tests will exclude students from the school building that have not yet had the ability to spread the virus. This reasoning seems highly suspect as it is better to exclude students from the physical classroom before they are contagious rather than wait until they have already started spreading the virus to other students, including those with additional health risks.

The district also takes the unnecessary risk of serving food in classrooms. The onslaught of COVID-19 put a pause on the wildly unpopular Breakfast In The Classroom program, but it will resume in the new school year. This will force students who are choosing to wear a mask to remove it during the meal period. Weather permitting, all food should be served outside where the risk of transmission is reduced.

If School Board members included a parent with children enrolled in LAUSD schools, perhaps the concerns of families would have been taken into account when crafting the new rules. This magnifies the importance of electing qualified parents Dr. Rocio Rivas and Marvin Rodriguez. Their election in November would give families a voice during board discussions. In the meantime, the board would be well advised to pay attention to suggestions for protecting students offered by Parents Supporting Teachers, an advocacy group with over 28,000 members, so that the district can commit itself to once again “being a national leader in school and community COVID safety.”

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.