Leslie Hofmeister, the co-founder of Reopen San Diego Unified School District, spoke with National Review.
One San Diego parent says the district’s decision to ask teachers to instruct migrant children in-person over spring break while students in the district are still learning in an online-only format is a “slap in the face.”
In an interview with National Review, Leslie Hofmeister, the co-founder of Reopen San Diego Unified School District, expressed frustration over a new report that teachers had been offered an opportunity to teach, in-person, migrant children who are staying at the San Diego Convention Center while SDUSD students are not scheduled to begin a hybrid model of in-person and remote instruction until April 12.
“It’s a slap in the face,” Hofmeister said. “We have been begging and pleading with these people to open our schools and take care of our children and do the right thing. And then the opportunity arises to take care of these migrant children and while I praise them for caring for them … all of our children deserve this kind of care.”
A San Diego County Office of Education spokesperson told Fox News that it is offering an educational program for the migrant children who will be staying at the convention center through July and said that “all children in California, regardless of immigration status, have a constitutional right to education.”
“We also have a moral obligation to ensure a bright future for our children,” the statement added.
However, Hofmeister asked, “What happened to the moral obligation to ensure a bright future for our children?”
Because the schools have said “they’ve been following the science and it simply isn’t safe to return,” a number of students are now on anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants to “try to cope with the bad feelings that have resulted from being locked out of schools,” said Hofmeister, who is a licensed marriage and family therapist.
“We can’t ensure a bright future for our students by retroactively treating them with medications because we won’t proactively take a stand and put them in school where they belong,” she said.
“I think all kids need schools, whether you’re an immigrant or a student of a San Diego taxpayer,” the mother of three added. “And so this inconsistency in approach to in-person learning is mind-boggling.”
While the teachers who are participating in the program will do so voluntarily and a spokesperson for the SDCOE told National Review that students will be kept six feet apart, tested for COVID every three days, and required to double mask, Hofmeister questioned how effective safety precautions will be in the convention center where at least 70 migrant teens have recently tested positive for the virus.
With 723 unaccompanied minors being sheltered at the convention center through a joint partnership between the county and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to NBC San Diego, it is unclear how well social distancing can be maintained outside of class when 250 children are expected to arrive every other day until the convention center reaches its shelter capacity of 1,450.
The controversy comes after a California judge issued a restraining order earlier this month blocking state officials from enforcing a reopening framework that mandated four-foot limits on space between students, and rules required students to remain in small cohorts within a single classroom.
The judge, Cynthia Freeland, sided with a San Diego parents group that argued the framework effectively prevented middle schools and high schools from reopening their doors. Freeland ordered the seven San Diego-area districts to “reopen their schools for in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible at the earliest practicable time.”
“It’s still complete hypocrisy, they’re going to serve those students before they’ve even brought their own in person. Unbelievable,” Hofmeister said.
Emily Diaz, an SDUSD parent noted that 14 percent of the students in the district have disabilities and 23 percent are English language learners.
“San Diego Unified took in millions of dollars in relief funding to bring them back at the beginning of the school year but only 6000 are in-person today and we have no idea how that money was used,” she told Fox News. “What is happening right now is immoral.”
Asked about the controversy on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that “context is important.”
“As I understand it, San Diego public schools are opening in early April,” Psaki said. “Students will be back in the classroom — part time — and certainly you know our objective from the White House — 5 days a week for majority of schools across the country.”
“The context is important,” she added. “These kids are going back to school for hybrid learning, we of course want this to be five days a week, and we’re confident we’ll get there early next month.”