A group of parents in Los Angeles is asking a court to force their children’s school district to open its classrooms “to the greatest extent possible” within seven days, arguing that coronavirus-related school closures are causing their children to suffer “irreparable harm.”
The complaint, filed on Wednesday on behalf of the group California Students United, asks the Los Angeles County Superior Court to order the Los Angeles Unified School District to reopen schools and to prevent it from enforcing 6-foot social distancing protocols and mandatory student testing provisions, which the group argues are unduly standing in the way of reopening.
“There is no reason Plaintiffs’ children should have to suffer through shorter school days with limited instructional hours and/or two- or three-day-per-week on campus distance learning models while other similarly situated students throughout California — and even in Los Angeles County — enjoy a full schedule of in-person learning five days per week,” the filing says. “LAUSD schoolchildren and their families are suffering irreparable harm.”
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The complaint goes through the individual experiences of plaintiffs’ children with remote learning, detailing poor grades, poor motivation, and social isolation.
One parent, identified as R.N., says her 11th-grade daughter stopped eating and has had little appetite during the last year of remote learning.
Another parent account describes a son who “complains that he hates distance learning and wants to go back to school, where he can learn in-person,” adding that “he is losing motivation to be a good student” and “is afraid to ask his teacher to clarify instructions.”
The parents’ complaint argues that while health guidance would have allowed the district to open elementary schools as soon as Feb. 16 and middle and high schools as early as March 12, the district and it’s teachers union stood in the way.
“The LAUSD Board of Education repeatedly cited teacher vaccinations and the need for an agreement with [United Teachers of Los Angeles] as remaining conditions to reopening, although neither was actually required by law or by UTLA’s collective bargaining agreement with LAUSD,” the complaint reads.
The district will start bringing students back to the classroom at a small number of the classrooms beginning April 13 and will expand reopenings in subsequent weeks, but the schools will follow a staggered schedule, offering half-time, on-campus learning for elementary students. The district will also provide supervised online instruction on campus for middle and high school students, though the complaint argues that the protocols do not stand up to legal scrutiny or follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.
A different group of Los Angeles parents sued the district and the United Teachers Los Angeles union in late March over continued school closures.
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The Washington Examiner asked Los Angeles Unified School District to comment on the most recent suit, but a district spokesperson declined.
