More than 100 students from Seattle Public Schools (SPS) campuses walked out of class on Jan. 14 in protest of what they consider to be unsafe conditions for in-person classes in the middle of the Omicron-fueled coronavirus surge.
Students and supporters gathered outside of the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence in Sodo for a rally and open mic organized by students from Cleveland High School.
They had five demands: that the district be transparent about the number of coronavirus cases on each campus and what number it would take to close in-person learning; that the district provide mental health resources for students, staff and community members; a new definition of an “instructional day” to include hybrid or fully remote learning; space in the schools to debrief after a traumatizing event; and a meeting with Gov. Jay Inslee to share about the conditions inside Washington schools.
Many people held signs asking for quality N95 or KN95 masks to guard against the virus — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cautioned against cloth masks, which offer less protection.
If the district doesn’t meet students’ requests, they won’t go to school, said Nya Spivey, a Cleveland High School senior and co-organizer of the rally.
“The district put out numbers of how many people, what percentage, need to be absent for school to go remote, so we are hoping that we can reach that number and we can go to school safely,” Spivey said.
Moving to remote learning is dependent on a variety of factors including staffing, absences, community transmission and ability to maintain health protocols, said district spokesperson Tina Christiansen in an email.
The district has specific metrics on when to move to remote learning, differentiated by type of school. If elementary schools get close to a 50 percent absence rate, they can “consider” remote instruction for up to 10 calendar days. K-5 and K-8 schools have half their classrooms remote and could consider going fully remote after monitoring for two to three days. If 10 percent of a core group of students and staff test positive for COVID-19, the school can consider remote learning for 10 days. If 25 percent of all SPS campuses are fully remote, the entire district can consider going fully remote.
Under state law, the district requires students to attend school and has procedures should a student have multiple unexcused absences. However, there are exceptions for “civic engagement activity” if a specific form is filled out and signed by the student’s parents and submitted two days before the absence.
The SPS COVID-19 dashboard shows that reported cases skyrocketed in the first week of January from 99 at the end of December to 803 reported between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7. Numbers from the first week in January include the results of a post-winter break testing initiative, according to the district.
According to the Seattle Times, classes were canceled in at least six schools in the week prior to the rally and at least nine schools had shifted to remote learning.
Students want to feel safe going to school, said Tate Williams, a junior at Nova High School.
“We should switch to online learning,” Williams said. “We’ve done it before, and it worked to some extent. It’s better than having a whole bunch of people die and get sick.”
It shouldn’t be up to young people to have to fight for their safety, said attorney and advocate Nikkita Oliver, who spoke at the rally. Oliver urged adults to take responsibility for creating safe, healthy spaces for young people.
“I know we celebrate their resilience, and we celebrate their strength, and we honor your leadership, but this is not how young people should be spending their time. Advocating for KN95s, advocating for testing, asking for safer environments,” Oliver said. “These things should be a given for every young person in our city, every young person in our county, every young person in our state, every young person in the U.S., every young person in the world.”
Ashley Archibald is the editor of Real Change News.
Read more of the Jan. 19-25, 2022 issue.