Parents Hold Protest Against LAUSD Mask Mandate
Several dozen angry parents staged a protest Tuesday outside teachers' union headquarters over the Los Angeles Unified School District's decision to keep mask mandates in place.
The demonstration took place outside the offices of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown.
It comes after the state of California Monday lifted the statewide requirement that students and staff wear masks while in classrooms. However, individual school districts can continue to require masks if they so choose, as LAUSD has done so far.
Despite the decision, new LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Saturday expressed his support for lifting the mandate.
"Our team is working with labor partners over the weekend to reach agreements that change indoor masking in schools from required to strongly recommended," Carvalho said in a statement.
The protesting parents believe UTLA is forcing the district to keep the mask requirements.
"They went against the CDC, and that's just unacceptable," father Robbie King said. "We're so tired of this union bargaining things that they really have no business being in."
"Everybody else in the entire nation has followed the rules, this building can't," King said. "And we're tired of it."
UTLA told CBSLA that it has a bargaining session scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the issue.
Protester and mother Anna Gonzalez argued that children rarely get serious cases of COVID-19.
"We just need to stop this, in my opinion, it's child abuse," Gonzalez said. "And it's going to cause trauma for the rest of their lives."
Parent Luis Dircio, however, is in favor of keeping the mask mandate. He said that even if the district relaxes the rules, he will still tell his daughter to mask up.
"There's a lot of kids that don't have shots, they don't have the COVID shots," said Dircio, who told CBSLA he lost a family member to the coronavirus. "So, hypothetically, what if they get sick?"