COVID: 'Let's Reopen Them' Parents Protest To Restart In-Person Learning In Sunnyvale
SUNNYVALE (KPIX) -- Frustrated parents in Sunnyvale and Cupertino have threatened to launch a recall of school board members if there's not an aggressive plan to reopen elementary, middle and high schools after a year of distance learning due to COVID-19.
"We're not going to sit quietly anymore. We are the voice for our kids. They have no one else. The system is not taking care of them," says Karen Boiman, a mother of four.
Roughly a hundred parents and students protested outside Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, voicing their frustration with the slow pace of school reopenings in the area.
"We know how to open school safely. Let's reopen them," says Raj Singh. Singh pulled his second-grade son out of his neighborhood school in favor of a private school where he could attend classes in-person.
"They say the child's brain is only 80 percent developed by the age of five. We don't actually have a lot of data on what the impact of long-term social isolation is on kids between the ages of five and eight," says Singh.
Protesters point to neighboring communities like Palo Alto where elementary students have returned to class and the superintendent has outlined a plan for middle and high school students as the direction their district should be heading in.
"It's a problem of leadership here," Boiman said.
A spokesperson for the Fremont Union High School District which has campuses in Sunnyvale, Cupertino and San Jose says until the county exits the state's purple tier they couldn't reopen even if they wanted to.
In a prepared statement, the spokesperson wrote "We know there is no replacement for the high-quality, in-person learning that we provided to our students prior to the pandemic, and empathize with the frustrations that so many parents are feeling right now."