A group of families and caregivers of students in the Mount Diablo Unified School District started a petition to urge the district to reopen schools for in-person education.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION ON CHANGE.ORG
The petition text is below:
We, the families and caregivers of MDUSD students, appreciate the district’s efforts to provide virtual resources as we navigate the evolving pandemic. We know how hard our administrators and educators have worked to develop a supportive remote learning model that was intended to be temporary.
That said, at this point we feel the district is no longer serving the best interests of a growing number of our students. In-person education is absolutely essential – not just ideal – for many of our families. We believe that in-classroom learning is critical to children’s academic, social and emotional development, and crucial for preventing further learning gaps and increased mental health issues.
We also understand the serious nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the risks it poses to vulnerable populations, and we highly value the safety and health of students, teachers and staff. Data on schools that have opened in the greater Bay Area, state of California, and across the USA show that it is possible to address safety and minimize spread in classrooms if guidelines are adhered to, and we pledge to support our school sites as they work to create the safest environment possible for all.
It is past time for MDUSD leadership to make concrete plans and preparations for resuming in-person education. We urge you to take a stronger stance on behalf of our despairing families. Those that need their students to have in-classroom learning must have that option, while families who prefer to keep their children at home should continue to be able to do so. Many MDUSD teachers are willing and ready to return to classrooms once they have been given confirmation that the learning environment meets health and safety protocols.
We respectfully request that MDUSD place urgency on re-opening safely during the 20/21 academic year. Specifically, we ask the district to:
- Provide a transparent, step-by-step action plan for re-opening that meets all safety guidelines set forth by the state of California, with weekly status updates.
- Re-open MDUSD schools as soon as possible, using the state of California criteria of COVID-19 metrics, as set forth in the “COVID-19 and Reopening In-Person Instruction Framework & Public Health Guidance for K-12 Schools in California, 2020-2021 School Year.”
- Immediately collaborate with MDEA to survey the district teachers and staff in preparation for the return to in-person learning in the current academic year.
- Immediately survey all district families in order to gather accurate data for the current academic year.
- Share in a timely and transparent manner the results of both the family and teacher surveys;
- Be ready and able to open in hybrid in the current academic year once state determined criteria for community spread has been met, within 7 days.
With regard to the 21/22 academic year, we respectfully ask:
- No later than April 16th, provide a commitment to MDUSD families to re-open campuses for the 21/22 academic year and propose alternative resources for families not seeking in-person learning modalities.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION ON CHANGE.ORG
Do you know how many people send their kids to school sick, with fevers… and let them sleep in classrooms instead of p/u? Until TEACHERS, yes the people who care for your children 5+ hours a day are vaccinated I don’t see what the rush is? Wait till Fall 2021. Hopefully by then things will be a bit better.
Thank you, people truly have no idea. Kids come to school wrapped in a blanket, their parents know well they are sick. In a few days everyone sitting around them is sick. Before you know it 8 kids are out sick. Every flu season.
MSJ
Thank you for your opinion. I heard it, I thought it over, I will now disregard it.
If teachers throughout the state and country can get into a classroom and teach in-person (5 days a week just outside of Sacramento) then our teachers can do the same.
MSJ – back to reading comprehension class for you.
The petition specifically allows all parties to have a choice, at least that is how I understand it. Maybe I need to go to reading comprehension class.
MSJ and annonmom
You are 💯 correct.
I so agree. How many kids are sent to school when they don’t feel well and are not picked up? Classrooms are already overcrowded, even with half the class. I know this has been hard on parent ands kids, but please know that this situation has been difficult for teachers too and they don’t want to bring the virus home to their families.
@MSJ,
This is already happening successfully elsewhere. Even within our own region private schools are returning successfully. Same with preschools. The push on MDUSD isn’t a novel, unprecedented move.
The rush is because we know that the CTA is pressuring the district to stall and get as much as they can out of this situation. If we wait until fall there will be another excuse. The school system is not for the benefit of the teachers, it is for the students and families and that’s what the petition is about.
Thank god some adults are stepping in to do what is right for the kids.
Teach at your own risk.
Send your kids to school at your own risk.
Shop at Costco at your own risk.
Work at Costco at your own risk.
Gas up your car at your own risk.
Drive at your own risk.
Ride a bus or Bart at your own risk.
Cut hair at your own risk.
Get a haircut at your own risk.
Go out to dinner/pick up a pizza/get a cup of coffee at your own risk.
Work at your own risk.
Live at your own risk.
The government is not your Daddy or Mommy.
Wow
I like it
It’s very precise and well structured
Not used to that over the past so 10-20 years of garbage from Bart and politicians and pro crime groups and pro communism
All the posts are full of just the dem catch or phrases and loop around and racism and fear mongering and nothing substantial
Accept we the people are going to pay for it
This is a step in making America great again
Yes the people actually saying no to unions and politicians and democrats
Who all want us to bow and beg
Ty for coming together and trusting the people and not the politicians or unions
Also they as every other union have been getting paid
Rather or not they were working
Must be nice to steal tax money while you go broken and your families suffer
Kudos and 3 cheers for America
You are setting things right
Let’s push for more of the peoples will and not special interest or pay to play democrats games
Support the children and we will beat the Covid games
Together
Good! Enough of this fear mongering!
glad to see some parents care enough about their kids to fight the unions who own gavin bin lying
The petition is clear and precise, but it’s lacking the “or else”.
Unless you recall these clowns, this will go on deaf ears. Notice how Newsom suddenly lifted the stay-at-home order last week when the recall is gaining steam?
If you have suggestions or can help with a lawsuit, please let them know.
I think the only solution at this point is protests, Gavin isn’t doing his jobs and the teacher’s union is hiding behind the kids. So disappointing.
Great petition.
I’ll sign it.
Does anyone really believe that anyone at MDUSD really cares much about what the taxpayers think?
I don’t.
Great news. This is a step in the right direction. We must find a way to get this done.
Has anyone shown proof that masks do anything? Or are you still just trusting fauci without peer reviewed data? I demand proof that masks work in any way for a virus
Signed! If private schools can do it so can our public schools!
Private schools were allowed to open with a “waiver,” only because Newsom’s children attend a private school. If Newsom did not have school-age children, I don’t think private schools would be open. What message is Newsom sending?
@Grandma G
Good question! I would say the message he is sending is he can do what he wants (example eating dinner at the French laundry) while keeping most of the economy on lock down.
If makes anyone fell better, I have 43 peers in 23 states. I am the only one that has kids not in school, none of them closed hair salons, nail salons, only 2 others closed in-door dining. None closed kids sports.
None of the schools or the sports have had any issues.
Awesome 👏 show me where to sign screw these lame teachers unions
For eighteen years I have coached high school track and cross country . For twentyfive years I coached youth running for grade school and middle school. I work for a school and our students need in class learning and sports.So many kids are now emotionally damaged and some are committing suicide. Yes Covid is real but we can not sanitize the whole world.take precautions be careful but please let our schools open.My wings are broken. My heart breaks.
Im with you. Im a teacher /coach. Let us teach off screen. Zoom Ed is not working. Give us kids to teach live!
Signed and thanks to whoever created it! The mental health of our teens is at stake here. It’s been almost a full year in distance learning. If we follow the data on masks (they work so wear one!!) then we be need to follow the data on schools reopening (it is quite safe with precautions in place-schools open for months in other states show that). You cannot pick and choose the data that you want to follow or ignore.
If you all could see the state of public education right now, you would want your child to be in school. If a minimum wage worker can get up and go to work in a busy grocery store, a teacher should be able to sit in a corner of the class with a mask on. The social skills of 99% of children, especially younger ones, have been decimated. We won’t see the effects of this immediately, but the damage has already been done.
Do you know how much MDUSD puts a parent/student through when they miss school? My student had surgery in 8th grade. She was out for 2 weeks. We worked with teachers and staff so she didn’t fall behind, then came the letters from the district. The first one was a truancy warning, the second a truancy contract, then a threat to report us to authorities.
We had teachers at open houses tell us to send our children to school if they were ill, just not feverish or vomiting.
Maybe now schools will not be so hard on parents for keeping their child home if they are unwell???????
Nope they still sending them dumb truancy letters out I just got one not to long ago mind u my son is special needs high functioning autism adhd ect, they have no remorse that it’s hard for my child to sit in front of a dumb chrome book and try and learn! Sucks for us parents who are high risk or have high risk kids because at one point we want the schools to open so our kids can get a fair education like the rest of the kids and world but then we can’t get into the class rooms because the risk of getting sick can kill them! And I’m not blaming the teachers at all my kid is enrolled in el dorado middle school and his teachers are great it’s the district I guess and stupid union who don’t get it!
Clearly you don’t have kids or are one of the parents projecting their own fears onto their kids. Most kids (certainly not all) are doing just fine both socially and academically. Source: I have Two kids in the “especially the younger ones” group and a wife teaching a similar age.
When school goes back as hybrid all kids will end up with less time per day with their teacher. Going back to hybrid schooling is not going to solve anyone’s problems, careful what you wish for.
I am the parent of an only child who is suffering in isolation and is not doing just fine. Kids without siblings feel alone when they are not able to socialize with their peers.
The teachers in high school are only in the virtual classroom about half of the period, the rest of the time students are on their own.
All schools at every grade level need to reopen full time.
Did you ever think that your kids might be doing just fine because you have more than one, and your wife is a teacher of that same age group?
Good step 1…step 2; give teachers 24hrs to return to their classroom. Any that don’t…F I R E D.
⬆️⬆️This⬆️⬆️
THIS!!! Yes! There ARE Teacher’s who WANT to get into the classroom – so give them a deadline. If they don’t want to return, end their contract and find Teacher’s who WANT to Teach and be in the classroom – there are PLENTY of them. This BS has GOT to stop.
This is how then President Ronald Reagan handled striking air traffic controllers iin1981.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-fires-11359-air-traffic-controllers
I’ve believed for quite some time now that the public school system in California is broken and as long as the unions are in control they will only get worse. There are many good teachers who want to get back to school but they’re outnumbered by their union members. I spoke yesterday to a friend who is an excellent teacher. He told me that he’s done by 1pm every day, that this is a cake walk, he’s getting full time pay for a part time job. He feels guilty about this but he’s outnumbered by the ones living the high life of full pay at part time work from home types and they aren’t eager to give that up. The only good here is that I think this is demonstrating that public school monopoly on education isn’t working. We need more alternatives, charter schools, vouchers or tax breaks for private schools. Somehow De La Salle in Concord and Berean Christian in Walnut Creek (just two examples) are back to modified in person instruction and have been for quite some time……and go figure the kids and teachers are doing just fine. The kids at those schools are at a great advantage because of their non-union leadership. It’s long past time to defund the public school systems in order to give parents of all income levels school choice. This situation simply finally and starkly has demonstrated that.
… no more excuses… back to school
I have a suggestion. I don’t think a traditional protest or a petition is going to be enough, although I appreciate the effort. Someone with a large social media presence should start a Zoom walk out. If us parents collectively refuse to have a students sign on to Zoom, the money will start speaking for itself.
Attendance is likely to be high at this point because students are able to “attend” school remotely when they otherwise might have been out of town or there were other circumstances that prevented them from being in school in person. Meanwhile, the district is collecting all of their attendance funding while providing a substandard education.
I would organize, but I am not on social media. Parents, let’s get this going!!!
Every parent, teacher, school admin should watch this 3 minute short film made by a 9th grade student. It shows distance learning through the perspective of the student. It is a *very* powerful video.
Please consider watching it and sharing it with others to see. Again, only 3 minutes long and regardless of your standpoint it is something we should all watch.
numb – a short film // liv mcneil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSkbd6hRkXo
I’m glad this is being done if for no other reason than to make a statement. But I am completely cynical about this having a whit of a result. Unfortunately, the district, union, state, county education department, et al have no legal obligation to pay any attention to it beyond lip service. I wonder if there could be a class action suit against the district and union? Courts might rule parents have no standing, although they should as primary “customers”.