The latest report from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) reported a few days ago that most students chose to continue taking classes from home. Only 7% of high school students, the 12% from middle school and 30% of primary school students returned to classes in person.
LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner said in his report last week that in high schools like Huntington Park, on average the % of the student body is attending classes, while in Woodland Hills, the average is only 5%.
On the other hand, elementary schools Southwest Los Angeles, where there are low-income families as in the City of Bell, less than 20 % of the students are returning to face-to-face classes.
Parents, students and teachers assure that the lack of interest is in part the fear of contagion and the poor quality instruction.
Ron Gochez, a teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou High School in South Los Angeles, said the district has made serious mistakes. s by not providing covid tests at your school on time. He assured that the mobile test units did not arrive on campus the first week of classes.
“This means that many students and teachers were allowed to enter the school with a covid test- 19 I could have had up to 14 days, ”Gochez said. “This is serious because it only takes four days for a person to contract the virus and then it becomes contagious.”
Additionally, the teacher indicated that there have been many occasions when the school only has six students and the maximum they have had has been less than 40 in a campus of more than 1, 000 students. Gochez stressed that last Monday only 30 arrived and there were around 45 teachers on campus.
“It doesn’t make sense. Today, I didn’t have any students in my classroom all day, ”he assured.
Maya Angelou is a school with approximately 90% of Latino student population.
Veronica Gardea, a mother with a fifth grade son in South Gate, also said be very disappointed in the school district system. She is not so concerned about the contagion of covid as the educational level her son receives during the school year. She emphasized that her 11 chose to stay home until the end of the semester .
“I asked him if he wanted to go and he said no,” Gardea said. “He said that if they make them repeat the year he wouldn’t mind because he feels he’s not ready to start high school next semester.”
Gardea said that he has spoken with his teacher son about the subject, but she thinks the teacher is just as frustrated as the students.
“The only thing she tells me is that we hold on for a few more weeks.”
However, Gardea assured that LAUSD has all its schools open with the highest level of security of any school district in the nation. He underscored that the district administers roughly a quarter of all covid tests – 19 in the Los Angeles, making it the largest provider in the region.
Given the consistency of testing, last week Authorities will immediately identify
“School principals were informed and able to prevent people with the virus from returning to school campuses until they are no longer contagious,” said Beutner.
Additionally, there are of covid to employees and students who are not coming to face-to-face classes but may need them.
Trusting parents
Meliza Sánchez, who has one child in elementary school and another in preschool, said she was initially confused about what the process of presenting a day pass would be like for the children to enter classes but she has already learned.
She indicated that she was one of the parents who did not want to take her children to school for fear of contagion, but After seeing the process that goes on in the school, he has changed his perspective.
“The teachers are doing the best they can and they have the test sites in the school. This prevents us from driving to Cal State LA or Garfield High School, ”said Sánchez, who is an essential worker.
The East Los Angeles resident said she keeps her children well informed in what they should and should not do at school, such as not touching their faces when they are in the bathroom, not sharing drinks or food with other children and washing their hands often, etc.
Stefani Alfaro, mother of two fourth and fifth grade students at Magnolia Science Academy Elementary 7 She also said that she feels comfortable with the measures that are being taken in the educational establishment.
“They had been locked up for a year and already missed being next to their classmates,” said Alfaro. “Every two weeks they do the covid test and they send us a text every morning so that we can click on the link and take their temperature.”
Marta Fuentes also thanks the reopening so that your children, one in high school and one in middle school at Magnolia Science Academy 2, can return to normal.
Your eldest daughter who is in the tenth grade is already vaccinated, so she is One less concern for Fuentes.
“At school, before returning they gave us the precautionary measures and at the entrance of the school every day a nurse is taking the temperature,” he said. the mother of the family.