KTLA

Reopening California schools will be based on safety, not pressure from Trump, Newsom says

Two security guards talk on the campus of the closed McKinley School, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District system, in Compton on April 28, 2020. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that a decision on reopening California schools this fall will be made by local education and health officials weighing the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, and emphasized that he won’t be swayed by statements from President Trump urging campuses to bring back students quickly.

The governor’s comments came as he warned that the number of coronavirus hospitalizations in California is continuing to surge, rising 44% in the last two weeks, and that another 111 Californians died from the virus in the last 24 hours.


In recent days, Trump has called on the country’s public schools to reopen “quickly and beautifully,” but Los Angeles County’s top health official said earlier this week that the surge in new cases may require continued distance learning in the county.

On Wednesday, Newsom said he will not be moved by the president’s criticism on social media of states moving carefully.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.