Families struggle with school choice
Students and parents across the state said they struggled with remote learning, but are fearful to return to school buildings amid the coronavirus pandemic, placing the stress of uncertainty upon families as fall approaches.
“I think it is cruel and mean to think that students should be in a room at their seat without any physical touch for hours,” said Jay’ dha Rackard, 12, who attends Helen Davis Leadership Academy.
Her mother, Janina Rackard, said she decided to keep her daughter home for remote learning this school year, “I feel like our children are being treated like Petri dishes.”
School shutdowns and remote learning models from the spring took a toll on students and parents, families said during a Thursday virtual press conference hosted by the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance.
‘If we cannot return to school in the fall in person, we should at least ensure that remote learning is the best it can possibly be.’
VICTORIA STUTTO
Chelsea High School senior
“Remote learning probably came at the worst possible time in my life,” said Chelsea High School senior Victoria Stutto. She said her father died shortly after school was shut down.
“My mental health was at an alltime low and I needed my friends more than ever,” Stutto said.
Low-income communities such as Chelsea took the hardest hit from the coronavirus, Stutto said, leaving students to pitch in with household finances, “I have personally seen students at work while on a Zoom call for school.”
Chelsea High School student Katy Ochoa said the same thing, “This causes students to feel like they have to choose between their education or supporting their families.”
Parents also face the need for childcare and meal services provided by school as they get back to work.
“I am afraid because in the hours that they went to school I could work. It terrifies me because at school they had breakfast and lunch and at home they only had dinner,” Joseline Sueros, a Worcester parent, said in Spanish.
Parents on Thursday’s call said they’d feel safer about sending their children back to school with more communication from administrators and clear requirements, such as COVID testing.
Suleika Soto, a Boston Public
Schools parent of two children, said if students must get a physical and a flu shot to go to school, then why not a coronavirus test?
“There hasn’t really been much clear communication as to what the procedures, the policies, what the steps are going to be,” Soto said.
Senior Victoria Stutto said, “If we cannot return to school in the fall in person, we should at least ensure that remote learning is the best it can possibly be.”