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WASHINGTON, D.C. – High school students in the Washington D.C. area held a walk out to change some of the COVID policies in the classroom. Some said the district’s policies have been too lax, but they’re not the only students fighting for change.
During the school day a handful of Banneker Academic high school students in D.C. were spotted outside the classroom, but there’s a reason for that. There was a district-wide walkout among D.C. students who are concerned about the district’s COVID policies in the classroom.
“The purpose of this walk out is to not only criticize the way DCPS has handled in school learning but to also bring awareness of the fact that this directly affects us as students,” said student Jaiden Woodard.
They said with the surge of the omicron variant which has heavily impacted D.C, they want to see some COVID policies change.
“Some of the goals include more testing especially with the amount of COVID cases in DC in general,” said student Javari Paul. “There’s a lack of transparency in those tests and the reporting of it. Also more hybrid learning aspects for students who don’t feel safe.”
“We want deep cleaning in the schools,” said student Tyrell Littman. “Only about ten percent of us get tested a week that’s not a lot of us. We all want to be tested and not just a number for us and so we don’t spread it to anyone else.”
This walk out follows another student walk out in neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland last week. Students also felt there were inadequate COVID mitigation measures and demanded more flexibility for remote learning. Also in neighboring Virginia, several school districts including Arlington and Alexandria recently sued Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) for his executive order allowing masks to be optional rather than mandatory in public schools.
These D.C. students said they deserve the safest conditions when it comes to COVID And their health should not be compromised for education.
“I feel that if we get our goals met we would feel a lot safer in school,” said Paul.
We reached out to D.C. Public Schools for an interview on this walk out and to see if they will consider some COVID policy changes, but we did not hear back.
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