2nd Oakland teacher sickout forces closure
Oakland schools faced a second teacher sickout less than a week after a group of teachers forced the cancellation of instruction at 12 campuses by calling in sick to protest working conditions during the region’s omicron surge. The district was already grappling with educators who were out due to COVID and a shortage of substitutes.
Nine schools canceled all instruction Thursday because of teacher absences, district officials said, although the campuses were still open to students.
Some students were also expected to call in sick Thursday and circulated an online petition last week threatening to go on “strike” by not going to school starting next week if the district did not meet safety demands similar to those laid out by teachers. It was unclear Thursday how many students missed school because of the sickout.
Thursday’s planned sickout comes on the heels of a challenging and stressful time for students, parents and educators in Oakland and across the Bay Area as schools struggle to stay open amid record-high coronavirus cases and personnel shortages.
Oakland schools, in particular, have been in disarray since students began the spring semester last week.
Schools have reported high rates of student and teacher absences related to the omicron surge since instruction resumed Jan. 3. Teachers who organized last Friday’s sickout said they hadn’t received enough N95 or KN95 face masks for themselves and their students. And Wednesday, teachers at the Frick United Academy of Language called in sick, forcing the school to close for instruction, according to the district.
Oakland Unified School District officials denounced the planned sickout.
“Being unable to come to school does disservice to our students and their families,” the district said in a statement Wednesday. “... Unauthorized sick outs, especially on short notice, create unnecessary challenges for families who still need to work and may not have easy access to child care. For older, more independent students, it can present additional challenges because they may not stay home, and instead mix with others outside their normal circle.”
While some of the 12 schools that were impacted by last week’s sickout kept campuses open to supervise students, staff at other sites, such as Garfield Elementary, turned away families because of the high number of teacher absences.
Students who organized the petition said that schools have lost their semblance of normalcy since classes resumed last week. Some classrooms have dramatically thinned out throughout last week and this week as students stayed home, and many teachers are reluctant to introduce new content to the students still attending school in person amid the wave of pupil absences.
“There isn’t very much learning (happening),” said Ximena Santana, a 10th-grader at Oakland’s MetWest High School who helped organize the student petition. “Our teachers don’t want the other students who are not showing up for safety reasons to fall behind.”
The students’ petition demands that the district provide KN95 or N95 masks for all students, offer twice-weekly PCR and rapid tests for all staff and students and create more outdoor spaces to eat when it rains.
The district has said it was already working to meet students’ and teachers’ demands by distributing more masks to students and staff.
The district released a statement Sunday in response to the petition saying, “the best thing that all students can do to protect themselves is to get vaccinated and boosted . ... We thank our students for staying in front of these issues, and bringing their concerns to district leadership.”
The district last week also reached an agreement with the Oakland teachers union to extend paid COVID leave to the end of the school year — one of the teachers’ demands.
Students will go on strike “by not going to school” starting Tuesday if the district doesn’t meet their demands, according to the online petition.
Students’ aim in participating Thursday is “to show the district that we’re actually serious about this and that we’ll go through, not only with the sickout, but also with boycotting school next week,” said Ayleen Serrano, a 10th-grader at MetWest who also organized the petition.
Hundreds of students’ names were virtually signed onto the Google doc petition.
Harley Litzelman, a history and economics teacher at Skyline High School who helped organize last week’s sickout, said Wednesday morning that teachers on at least six campuses had voted to call in sick “in solidarity” with students.
Montera Middle School in the Oakland hills was among the campuses closed for instruction Thursday because of the sickout. Principals at other Oakland campuses warned families that a high number of teachers planned to call in sick and advised them against sending their kids to school Thursday.
Dina Frandsen, who has two Montera kids, said Wednesday she didn’t support the labor action.
“I have a lot of gratitude to the teachers and the staff at the schools, and the district, for making them safe,” Frandsen said. “And I feel very strongly that healthy teachers not showing up while we’re in this very difficult period is really just the wrong thing to do.”