Shut off the screens
Re “School reopenings reveal rift,” Feb. 12, and “Suing to reopen schools is a political stunt, Beutner says,” Feb. 7
Los Angeles schools need to open. Both of my kids are in private secondary schools, and neither has stepped foot in a classroom since March 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that schools that have safe plans to open should.
Local and state leadership should do everything in their power to get teachers vaccinated. However, L.A.’s healthcare workers and first responders never stopped working during the pandemic, and physicians with appropriate protective equipment were on the job before vaccines were available. We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Parents are asked by pediatricians and teachers to limit their children’s screen time, but now kids are sitting in front of a screen all day. The lack of physical movement is harmful for our kids, and the mental isolation is terrible. Teenagers should not be sitting at a computer all day.
It is past time for Los Angeles to do the right thing and reopen its schools.
Sonja Rosen, M.D. Los Angeles
Demands and lawsuits by Los Angeles City Council members will not reopen our public schools; widespread vaccinations will.
Our city leadership should be laser-focused on obtaining more doses. Emphasis should be given to vaccinating teachers, school staff, school bus drivers and crossing guards so they can return to work with a measure of safety.
We need every city leader pushing in the same direction to reach the end of this pandemic. Adversarial demands and court cases are not helpful. Terry Walker
Sylmar
I am a teacher. My children are teachers. My grandchildren attend Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. My 5-year-old grandchild waits each day to hear that she can enter kindergarten, to learn and play with other children, to be in the same room as her teacher.
Schools mean regulated environments, and schools around the country, employing mitigation methods, have already established they’re safe, especially for the early grades. Whatever community the students are part of, if they aren’t in a classroom, they likely will be in less safe environments.
Of course many teachers feel vulnerable, but their getting a vaccination is no guarantee that they will want to return to the classroom (and perhaps rightly so for some). The classroom will never be absolutely safe, but the harm to children’s education and psychological well-being warrants taking a risk that science considers small.
Al Austin West Hills
As a public school educator and a parent to two young children, I want our schools to physically reopen. However, it should happen only when our educators have been vaccinated and proper safety measures have been implemented.
We must prioritize science above politics and safety above all.
Telly Tse La Crescenta