Hundreds of Oakland students have launched an online petition demanding increased COVID-19 protocols. If the Oakland Unified School District does not meet their demands, they have vowed to strike.
“We are demanding KN95 masks for all of the students because they’re not easily accessible to them, twice a week PCR and rapid tests for everyone on campus and more outdoor spaces to eat safely when it rains or if the district doesn’t want to give this to us, we demand a shift to online learning,” Ayleen Serrano who a 10th grader at MetWest High School in Oakland, told KRON.
The students have given the school district a Jan. 17 deadline. The next course of action will be not to attend in-person classes for the remainder of that week until a planned strike outside the district’s office building on Jan. 21
Last Friday, at least a dozen schools in Oakland were forced to close after more than 500 teachers called out sick as part of a protest over COVID safety concerns. The teachers cited rising cases and insufficient masks and available testing.
“I don’t know a single teacher who wants to go remote 100%. This is just an effort so that we can reduce transmission,” Jordan Blumberg-Long, a social science teacher at Skyline High School, told the Los Angeles Times. “We all know that in-person instruction is way better, but right now, that’s just not happening because we have so many people out.”
Teachers have been urging OUSD to bolster COVID safety measures since the district first considered reopening fully to in-person learning last year.
“Friday’s actions are not an official union action, but we’re urging the district and state leaders and our elected officials to listen to the urgent demands of all Oakland educators for better masks and more testing,” said Keith Brown, the president of Oakland Education Association teachers’ union. “It’s critical that we have dramatic action from our decision makers to address staffing shortages to ensure that our schools remain safe and are open for our students.”
