The COVID-19 pandemic has led school districts across the United States – and in countries across the globe – to conduct their instruction online and through virtual means like Zoom.
In Los Angeles, however, a group of parents is suing the Los Angeles teachers union, claiming that the union is forcing the huge Los Angeles Unified School District to prevent students and teachers from showing up in person for classes.
Shella Sadovnik, litigation counsel for the Freedom Foundation, is leading the charge to sue the Los Angeles teachers’ union, as covered by KUSI News in San Diego.
Other groups like Nick Melvoin’s Speak Up have targeted the LAUSD, demanding that they reopen school facilities and ignore the risks of COVID-19 spreading.
The Freedom Foundation is representing four parents who are suing the school district to force an immediate full return to in-person instruction.
The focus on the teachers’ union is suggesting that the union’s negotiations with the school district have forced the district’s hand in keeping school campuses closed during the pandemic.
Opposing the Freedom Foundation lawsuit is a group called Parents Supporting Teachers. The group, with more than 25,000 followers, was created to foster communication between parents and administrations in the Los Angeles USD.
Parents Supporting Teachers issued the following statement:
As a group dedicated to supporting and uplifting public education, we at Parents Supporting Teachers are disheartened to see these latest lawsuits against LAUSD which serve no purpose other than taking even more money from our critically underfunded public schools. The entire country has suffered from Covid-19, and to try to place blame on either a school district or a labor union is both an indication of privilege and a complete dismissal of the trauma communities of color have endured over the past year. Our schools have been open for the past year, and they will physically open this month in a hybrid manner that puts safety first. The real question is, why weren’t these billionaire-funded private groups asking for equity and enrichment for high-needs kids over the past year while we were in distanced learning?