Davis County School District just announced changes to a regular fall school schedule. Their plan is to have children attend school in person two days a week and do online learning the other three school days. My experience in the spring, along with most everyone I interact with, was less than ideal. As a mom I did everything in my power to help my children succeed, but everyday was filled with tears and frustration from my children.

Last month the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is a conservative organization, came out with a strong recommendation that children need to be in school and the good outweighs the bad when it comes to Covid. They stated: Reopening schools is so important for the kids but really for the entire community. So much of our world relies on kids being in school and parents being able to work. Trying to work from home with the kids home is disproportionately impacting women. So it goes beyond just the health of the child, which is, of course, very important. As a country, we should be doing everything we can right now, for lots of reasons, to make sure we can safely reopen schools in the fall.

Davis School District has done a great job of trying to make sure all children receive an education that will help them succeed in life. This new plan contradicts the science based and good measured plan that was already in place to go back to full time school in the fall. Furthermore, we feel blind sighted by the district as everything we’ve heard leading up to this new decision took in to consideration the feelings of parents, students, teachers, and science alike. This closed-door decision came way too early and without the support of what we believe the overwhelming majority supports and more importantly what science supports. Children don’t carry, transmit, or inherit the virus the same way adults do. Let’s go back to school in a responsible, clean, and measured way and not let the children from single parent homes, those with food insecurities, those who suffer from mental illness, and those with special needs fall disproportionately behind from this new schedule. Those who are already behind in school will only fall further behind and have long lasting effects from the lack of education and one-on-one help they desperately need and receive only in a full-time school setting.
With this petition we are asking you to reconsider this change and go back to your original plan for school in the fall.
Thanks