A group of parents — who say their children have been illegally shortchanged by Los Angeles Unified School District’s return-to-school plan — is seeking a court order to force the district to reopen “to the greatest extent possible” within seven days.
The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, asks the court to prohibit L.A. Unified from using a six-foot distancing standard in classrooms because it effectively prevents the school district “from providing in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible.” It also seeks to prohibit the district from requiring students to take regular coronavirus tests as a condition for returning to campus.
The district’s reopening plan, which begins to unfold next week, offers a half-time, on-campus schedule for elementary students and supervised online instruction on campus for middle and high school students, a format that the lawsuit characterizes as harmful and legally inadequate.
“There is no reason Plaintiffs’ children should have to suffer through shorter school days with limited instructional hours and/or two- or three-day-per-week on campus distance learning models while other similarly situated students throughout California — and even in Los Angeles County — enjoy a full schedule of in-person learning five days per week,” states the complaint. “LAUSD schoolchildren and their families are suffering irreparable harm each day that their schools remain closed for in-person instruction.”
Read the full story at LATimes.com.