The controversy over the reopening of campuses in the San Francisco Unified School District in California continues to fester. Many Parents could not stand it and launched a signature campaign urging the district to come up with a plan to safely reopen the campus as soon as possible so that students can return to the campus.
On February 4, a number of parents, students, and San Francisco officials rallied at Jose Ortega Elementary School near Ocean Avenue in San Francisco to demand that the district, Board of Education, and teachers union reach an agreement to reopen the campus as soon as possible.
Cliff Yee, a Chinese-American parent, was one of the driving forces behind the movement. His parent group, Decreasing the Distance, is leading the signature campaign. He described the physical and mental developmental toll of Home schooling on children and the lack of a concrete plan from the district. He emphasized that he is a parent, not a politician, and that he stood up for the children that day. Yu was also previously active in the community, having served as a representative of the Chinese American Association (OCA).
Arianna Zhang, a Chinese student at Lowell High School, also gave a speech asking the school district to put in place a plan to safely resume classes. Zhang is also a representative on the City Council’s Youth Committee and was an appointee of former City Council President Ding-Ang Yu.
The parents’ signature campaign calls for the school district to come up with a concrete restart plan within two weeks. The Unified School District has now almost decided that it will not reopen campuses this school year, angering many parents and political officials. This is because many private schools have already restarted their campuses and there have been no major confirmed outbreaks.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, California State Senator Scott Wiener, California State Assemblymembers Shin-Fu Khoo and Right Honorable Ding, and San Francisco City Councilmember Rafael Mandelman were all present at the conference. In their speeches, they emphasized that they have done everything they can to help the school district restart and have given a lot of resources, and that San Francisco has the best preparedness department and resources.
Bridle choked up at one point during his speech, saying that the loss of these children’s physical and mental development will be the responsibility of the adults.
Earlier the school district had been sued by the city of San Francisco for its delay in restarting the program, and the incident caused a huge storm. The school district and the Board of Education then rebutted the city’s side, emphasizing that there was already a safe restart plan in place.
The district, the Board of Education and the teachers’ union are still discussing the details of the reopening. At one point, the powerful teachers’ union demanded that the Bay Area reach the “orange” tier before classes could resume, but negotiations failed to reach a consensus, putting the restart plan on hold.
California State Assemblymember Wiseman Gao supports the campus reopening.
Lowell High School Chinese student Koying Zhang demands that the school district introduce a safety restart plan.
Bridle choked up at one point during his speech.
Mr. Qiu Xinfu supports the reopening of the campus.
Chinese parent Yu Jizhong is the driving force behind the signature campaign.
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