Reopening Los Angeles: LAUSD parents plan to hold another Zoom blackout protest Saturday
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Some Los Angeles Unified School District parents are planning another Zoom blackout protest on Saturday, similar to one held that was held Monday.
The parents are trying to increase pressure on the district, the second-largest in the nation, to reopen its campuses for in-person instruction.
Los Angeles County has reached the threshold for elementary schools to reopen.
But the district and union have pushed back, even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it's safe to return -- even without having all teachers vaccinated.
As the vast majority of California students approach one year of distance learning, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Tuesday that classrooms will reopen "very, very shortly." But his forecast was called into question by Los Angeles teachers who continue to insist that the state's largest school district won't open without more vaccinations.
LA County prepared to expand vaccinations to teachers, frontline workers
"The pressure building to return to schools is political. It is not science," the United Teachers Los Angeles said in a statement. The union said it will vote next week to refuse resuming in-person classes unless certain demands are met, including that all returning staff get access to vaccinations and COVID-19 case numbers in the county continue to decrease.
For weeks, Newsom has been negotiating with lawmakers on a deal to reopen schools and salvage what's left of this academic year. Most of California's 6 million public school students haven't seen a classroom since mid-March of 2020. A state lawmaker submitted a $6.5 billion proposal last week aimed at reopening schools by this spring, but Newsom said the timetable was too slow and suggested he could veto it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
