As the holidays end and school starts back up again, many families in the Bay Area are apprehensive about sending their kids back to school as the omicron variant continues to wreak havoc around the world.
Now, East Bay members of a national group associated with two major teacher unions are taking it a step further.
"Do not have families, students returning to school sites and return to virtual learning while the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly omicron is a tsunami wave hitting us across the country and across the world," said Mark Airgood, with the activist group Equal Opportunity Now By Any Means Necessary, or EON/BAMN, during a press conference on Sunday.
"The full impact of the holiday season on COVID-19 spread, hospitalization rates and deaths will not become apparent until mid to late January," said a EON/BAMN press release. "The plan by the Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco School Districts to reopen schools on Monday can only guarantee the infection of countless children and their families."
The group is calling for all school districts to return to virtual learning as the pandemic surges.
"COVID-19 is now the 5th leading cause of death for children 5 to 12," said Airgood. "And the 8th leading cause for all minors."
A member of the organization and East Oakland Pride Elementary School teacher Adarene Hoag is calling for parents to simply extend their winter vacations by just another week.
"If we do that, we can get the reinstatement of distance learning programs for all," she said.
Along with that, the group called for parents to demand the reinstatement of "pandemic economic assistance for families, demand that school boards close campuses now, and demand mandatory vaccination, testing, and quality masking for every student, teacher, staff member and visitor.
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