Pressing at the doors
Some central Ohio parents and children protest online-only learning as Dublin board votes 5-0 for hybrid plan
Megan Henry and Alissa Widman Neese
Kids entering sixth grade are normally worried about switching classrooms for the first time and remembering the combination for their new lockers.
But Dublin parent Emily Schneider said her 12-year-old daughter has spent weeks worrying if she’ll experience any sixth-grade milestones at all as the novel coronavirus continues to spread in Ohio.
“It’s been very difficult,” Schneider said. After more debate during a three-hour meeting viewed online by some 2,200 people, the Dublin City Board of Education finally decided 5-0 Tuesday night to adopt a hybrid model of both in-person and online learning. The decision goes against health officials’ recommendations to start classes completely online until “public health data suggest that returning to school in a hybrid or blended model would be appropriate.”
Dublin students will all learn online when the school year starts Aug. 24 and the hybrid instruction is to begin two weeks later on Sept. 8.
About 80 parents, students and community members, including Schneider, had gathered outside the district’s administrative offices for about an hour Tuesday, chanting “back to school” and protesting in support of students returning to buildings in some capacity.
Children held signs that said “Kids are essential” and “Help me learn, please open school.” One parent’s sign read “My kitchen is not a classroom.” Another sign held by a maskless man said: “Get back in class ... or get another job.”
The demonstration was one of eight Tuesday organized by parents at schools in central Ohio’s suburbs, with others at Bexley, Gahanna, Hilliard, South-western, Westerville, Upper Arlington and Worthington high schools. Those districts will conduct classes completely virtually to start the school year, following recently amended recommendations from Franklin County Public Health.
A handful of local districts with boundaries mostly outside Franklin County, including Canal Winchester, Olentangy, Pickerington and Licking Heights, have deiced they will offer a combination of weekly in-person and online instruction, similar to Dublin’s model.
Schneider said she supports a hybrid model, which would at least allow for some face-to-face interaction.
“This is going to affect them more than a few months,” Schneider said, referencing their social and emotional development. “This is going to affect them the rest of their lives.”
Kimberly Hartman, who helped organize Tuesday night’s rallies, gathered at Hilliard Davidson High School with about 70 other parents and students.
“We’re not the only community going through this . ... We’re all fighting for the same things,” said Hartman, a parent of a sixthgrader, a second grader and a preschooler. “My biggest concern, and I know a lot of other parents share the same concerns, is that we’re just worried about the mental health of these kids.”
About 40 parents, students and band members lined the sidewalks in front of Gahanna Lincoln High School on Tuesday, holding signs reading “Don’t teach our kids to run and hide” and “#Letthemplay” as several cars driving along Hamilton Road honked in support.
“We want everybody to be safe,” said Antoinette Perkins, a parent of a freshman and a sophomore. “That is our primary focus, but we also want our kids to have an education.”
She said her children were sad to hear that the Gahanna-jefferson district had switched to virtual learning.
“My incoming freshman has had disappointment after disappointment this year,” she said. “She has yet to even have the experience of finding a locker or walking through the hallways.”
Gahanna-jefferson’s first day of school is Aug. 24, but Perkins is in favor of delaying it to implement additional precautions in classrooms, like placing plexiglass between desks.
“If the luxuries can be open, then school, a priority, just like the bank, needs to be opened,” she said.
Dublin eighth-grader Matthew Black, 13, said he wants to return to school because it’s easier to focus and learn.
“If you have a question, you can just ask it,” he said.
Brooke Jones, the parent of a Gahanna freshman, is concerned about students’ mental health.
“Taking away schools (and) taking away sports, I feel like our depression and our suicide rate is going to increase more than what it is already is,” she said.
Some parents, including Dublin parent Jennifer Weber, say health risks are still too great to send children back. She plans to enroll her two high school students in the district’s fully online platform, an option most area districts are offering.
The state’s largest teachers union, the Ohio Education Association, has also expressed support for completely online instruction in areas greatly affected by COVID-19 infections.
Weber said the subject has become a flashpoint.
“It’s really hard on the community right now, with everyone being so divided,” Weber said. mhenry@dispatch.com @megankhenry awidmanneese@dispatch.com @Alissawidman