Speaking Up to Open Up

Parents of the Santa Monica and Malibu communities want their kids back in school and have created an online Facebook group called “Open Up SMM Schools.”

Open Up Santa Monica and Malibu Schools Protesters hold signs up as they cross the street at 4th and Pico Blvd. Saturday, March 13, 2021 in Santa Monica, Calif. They started their march from Belmar Park to Virginia Park via Pico Blvd. They are urging the Sant Monica School District to open schools back up to the children.(Corsair | Brad Wilhite)

On March 13, families of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) gathered eagerly in front of Historic Belmar Park for the campaign, “Open Up SMM Schools.” Harriet Fraser and Gayle Gilman, two SMMUSD parents, started the campaign. They and other parents marched throughout Santa Monica in hopes that their school district, which had no solid goal of reopening, would discuss plans of sending their kids back to in-person school.

Parents in attendance showed their strong desire for their kids to return to in-person schooling. Susanne Jacobson gave a deeper insight into what was driving her involvement in the cause. She described the dissatisfaction she had with her son's virtual eighth-grade education at Lincoln Middle School.

“He goes from being a straight-A student to getting D’s and F’s, and I was told by school administration that ‘that’s okay, a lot of kids are failing,’ why is that okay?... I had a straight-A student, now I have a depressed child who hates school and is failing,” Jacobson said.

Caeli Lynch, a parent of a Mckinley Elementary School student, also noticed abrupt changes in her daughter’s mental health since starting school online. “She's a kinetic learner who thrives on social interactions, and it's hard for her to feel a connection through a screen. She started to exhibit changes in her mental health, towards the end of January, early February,” said Lynch. She believes in her child’s teachers but thinks that Zoom school just isn’t working for her family or others in the community.

“I was surprised to hear that SMMUSD hasn't been tracking mental health. They've been tracking academic achievement through this year, but they haven't been paying attention to how keeping schools closed has impacted the mental health and well-being of students from [kindergarten to] grade 12,” said Lynch.

Gail Pinsker, the SMMUSD District spokeswoman elaborated on the situation regarding the mental health of students. “We do not utilize a tracking tool, however, our mental health coordinator, school physiologists, counselors, and administrators are reporting a rise in the need for resources. We have compiled a resource guide that is updated regularly,” said Pinsker.

Many parents and students discussed how having classes online promotes inequities in several communities. Erol Lewis, a third-grade student, mentioned that “anything can happen, your computer could power off, some people might not have internet, some people might not have computers so that’s why we’re doing this." Even being a young third-grader, Lewis identified an equity issue; the fact that although Santa Monica is a wealthy area, many kids might not have access to tutors, learning pods (small meetings of children, within the same age, who gather at a family’s home to learn together), or computers.

Another one of the campaign's arguments is that they believe online learning is ineffective. Throughout the march, they had signs that read: “Zoom is Doom,” “Zoom hurts my brain,” and “I wanna meet my teacher.” Jacobson voiced her opinion on the ineffectiveness of engagement on Zoom, “When [her son] doesn’t understand something and goes to raise his virtual hand, they don’t answer questions until the end of the lecture. By that time he doesn’t understand what’s been said."

An unknown protester at the Open Up Santa Monica and Malibu Schools Protest at Virginia Park on Saturday, 13, 2021 in Santa Monica Calif. Parents and children came to support the movement to reopen Santa Monica Schools.(Corsair | Brad Wilhite)

Parents from the march wrote many letters to the school district as well as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to encourage action. Lynch wrote a letter recommending that students only have to keep a distance of three feet instead of six feet in classrooms to allow for more students in school. Lynch's recommendation came from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.

On March 19, the CDC updated that at least three feet of social distancing was recommended in all classrooms. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also recently updated a three-feet minimum requirement. In response to these updates, SMMUSD Superintendent, Dr. Ben Drati, sent out a letter to the parents of the community on March 26 stating the following: “We are excited to announce our planned full reopening dates. Elementary students will return full-time on April 19 and secondary students will return full-time on April 26. Secondary students will have a week of hybrid as a transition the week of April 19. Distance learning will be an option."

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reassures parents that their children, who are unable to receive the vaccine, are less likely to contract or transmit the disease, “but they definitely have the ability to do both," said a representative from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Children in the community who were infected were more likely to have contracted it from large social gatherings, and much less likely to have gotten it from being in a school environment.

Since it was announced that their kids were officially going back to school, the reaction of parents in the district seems to be that of gratitude and relief. The Open Up SMM Schools' Facebook Page stated, "We commend the District for responding to their community and prioritizing the best interest of our students. Schools are the heart of our community and we are extremely pleased that we will see our schoolyards filled with children once again."