“A
five-hour meeting was As the opposition for the secondary run, only for us to be ig- school reopening continued throughout nored,” junior Sarah the night, students started to take action. Chung said. Chung and Bhatia, along with five other After a lengthy Nov. 10 board meet- juniors, created a petition against the plan ing filled with angry public comments, the that stated, “We believe that the current Palo Alto Board of Education approved a benefits of the proposed reopening plan, pandemic reopening proposal that was a most notably the ability to return to the “half-baked plan meant to ‘tick the box’ classroom, are heavily outweighed by the of returning,” according to junior Kabir harms of the student population, their Bhatia. families, and staff.” It was a moment that called for acBhatia said that they made the petion against a plan that tition after the Nov. 10 would put the com- “As the night went school board meeting. munity in harm’s way, “When asked what the on, it became Chung and Bhatia said. overarching goal for the The two started a pe- clearer and clearhybrid learning plan tition that ultimately er that this was a was, the district seemed would garner almost unable to grasp the 700 signatures. and- half-baked plan question,” Bhatia said. Chung emailed the meant to ‘tick the “Why wouldn’t we try Palo Alto High School to go back? It’s better, administration to ex- box’ of returning” right? They don’t unpress her opposition to – Kabir Bhatia, junior derstand that their plan the plan, receiving a reis worse for students.” sponse she described as Junior Colleen “dismissive.” . Wang said that the petition first started out Together, these two actions crystal- as an open letter with statistics concerning ized a student response that although the virus, but as more of her classmates ultimately proving unnecessary — when read it and talked about it, she realized Santa Clara County moved to the Purple that they all had ideas that should be addTier all talk of shifting a hybrid schedule ed to the open letter. “After revising, we for second semester ended — demon- decided to start a petition to promote this strated the voice of the school’s student open letter as well to make sure PAUSD community. can listen to us instead of ignoring us,” she said. Activist Perspectives Junior Matthew Cao, another one The board plan would have separat- of the petition makers, said the district ed the hybrid students into cohorts. In should be more cautious and avoid addition, high school students who decid- taking unnecessary risks. “Covid-19 ed to choose the hybrid learning option is absolutely not a joke and it seemed would have only had Social Studies and that the board needed a formalized English classes in-person. and organized reminder of why the During the meeting, numerous par- community is outraged at the plan.” ents, teachers and students expressed their Chung agreed with the arguthoughts on the plan. A majority of those ments made against hybrid schedwho spoke out expressed disappointment uling due to rising Covid cases in and worry about reopening. the county. “Although petitions “It will destroy relationships with teachers because it changes everyone’s schedule,” one speaker said. “Teachers are distraught that they don’t have a say in any of this,” another said. “How will this help anybody?” a student said.
were going around at that time for a demand to shut down school because of so many concerns such as cases rising up in our city, Don Austin said that school will continue and didn’t shut it down until the final warning and issue by the California governor,” Chung said. “I felt like publicizing a document filled with sources, ranging from CNN to Inside Edition, analysis such as statistics and interviews, and electronic signatures signed directly from one’s device would bring more stress into our demand for reconsideration of this Hybrid System,” Chung said. Reopening Concerns Paly senior Daniela Rodriguez argued that having only Social Studies and English classes available in-person will not help students who need to learn in a faceto-face setting. “Personally, math, electives and science classes seem to be classes that are more important,” Rodriguez said. “Many science classes include labs, elective classes include auto and photography, and math classes due to its density and questions that arise.” Teachers activated too Since English and Social studies teachers would have to return to school if they were chosen for the hybrid schedule, they would
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