When Andrea Cespedes returned to school in the first week of January, she was struck by the number of absent students and teachers during the recent omicron surge. “It was definitely really empty,” says Andrea, a junior at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago. “I think one of my classes only had 10 students in it, when we have, like, 25 to 30 kids per class.”
In early January, Chicago students like Andrea joined to form Chi-RADS (Chicago Public Schools Radical Youth Alliance), a youth-led organization pushing for COVID-mitigation policies such as: two weeks of remote learning; daily antigen testing to be available at schools and distributed among hard-hit communities; vaccine centers in schools; free N95 masks; and a more efficient contact-tracing system. The group went public with its demands on January 10, and organized a walkout on January 14. Hundreds of students, representing at least 20 Chicago high schools, joined the protest.
Tate, a student at Chicago’s Kenwood Academy and a Chi-RADS member, says he believes there are a lack of resources and mitigation strategies to combat COVID-19 in public schools. “Some people have to take one mask and use it several days because they're so expensive. Some schools don't have proper air ventilation,” he says. “Oftentimes, like in my class, we run out of bacterial wipes.”
In response to a request for comment from Teen Vogue, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) states, “The District will provide KN95 masks for staff and student use over the course of the next two to three weeks, in addition to the PPE already provided.” The statement from CPS also says the district will transition to remote learning for individual schools when needed, but is not authorized to do so at the district level.
Chi-RADS isn’t the only organizing group that has drawn attention to the conditions K-12 students are facing at the start of the semester in the wake of omicron. In recent weeks, high school students across the country have been writing online petitions, raising awareness about the national shortage of rapid tests in schools, and organizing walkouts. They are demanding a seat at the table with administrators who insist in-person learning must go on despite record numbers of COVID-19.
After a petition for Boston's public schools to go remote was launched in early January, students in Oakland, Seattle, Austin, and Maryland launched similar petitions in support of remote learning, threatening to walk out if demands were not implemented. On January 11, hundreds of New York students in favor of going back to remote learning in the short term, who also want more resources for testing and masking, walked out of class.
Students nationwide are following suit. In Denver, youth organizer Haven Coleman, a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School, connected with classmates on social media to publish a joint letter to the superintendent of schools. “We do not have any mandatory testing or tests to see how many students are really sick in the school,” Haven says. “It’s so sad to see our schools barren.” Students from Thomas Jefferson and North Denver High School walked out of class on January 20.
Haven, who has organized climate strikes in the past, says she was motivated to contact school officials because she has immunocompromised family members. Haven also struggles with asthma. “We need changes to happen. We’re so tired of having to go to school when it’s a huge risk to not only ourselves but our families,” Haven explains. “My family has a lot of health complications. Getting COVID would be detrimental for us, but I can’t lose my education.”
“We certainly understand our students' frustrations,” Denver Public Schools (DPS) says in a statement to Teen Vogue. “This is a very difficult time for schools right now, here in Denver and across the state and country. But our scholars and families rely on our schools, and we need to do everything we can to keep them open for in-person learning and support.”
The statement also addresses the need for further masking and testing resources, and asks that the total number of signatories on Haven’s petition — approaching 900 — be taken alongside the district’s total enrollment, which is over 90,000 students. Officials from DPS also encourage students and staff to get tested regularly.
Blue Lopez, a sophomore at Fremont High School in Oakland, has helped spread the word about the students’ petition to protect their vulnerable family members as well. “I have a baby sister who is premature,” they share via email. “When my family and I had COVID, we took her to the hospital and they didn't have any beds left for her because of the amount of children that were sick.” Blue has also suffered from long-term COVID symptoms despite being vaccinated.
But Blue is optimistic that their school’s administration will meet student demands. “We have had a lot of support,” they say, mentioning that the school district delivered on providing KN95 masks and installing outdoor spaces for students.
“We share the students’ concern about the spike in omicron cases of COVID-19,” reads a statement from Oakland Unified School District. The statement also says testing is conducted at all schools at least once a week, and some twice a week; KN95 masks are in the process of being distributed to all students; and administrators are working to fulfill all of the demands in the petition.
One last unmet demand, twice-weekly PCR and rapid testing, led students to begin their strike on January 18, until a tentative agreement for testing was reached on January 25. Student organizers, including Blue, and the Oakland Teachers’ Union say the strike was a victory.
“Weekly testing is part of the tentative agreement,” a message from the Oakland Education Association states. “The organizing from students made that happen.”
In St. Paul, youth organizer Jerome Treadwell led a walkout with Minnesota Teen Activists on January 18 and published a petition with demands including the distribution of KN95 masks and a temporary return to remote learning “until Omicron is under control.” All eight public high schools and some middle schools in the district participated in the walkout.
“Immediately, we can see that our education is being compromised, because of the surge of the pandemic and with not having teachers in school,” Jerome says, referencing the reported teacher shortage in St. Paul's public schools, which is being exacerbated due to the spread of omicron.
Jerome also says disproportional racial-health inequities are a big concern for students in the community. “First things first: [Testing is] not mandated. And the second thing is that it's not available across all schools,” he points out. “So we've been trying to explore ways that our school can provide tests for students.”
According to St. Paul's public school guidelines, only unvaccinated teachers are required to be tested weekly. But Minnesota Teen Activists and the St. Paul Federation of Educators are pushing for twice-weekly tests regardless of vaccination status and faster turnaround time to receive results.
The pressure on school districts seems to be working. In an official statement in response to the walkout, the district assured that KN95 masks and additional rapid tests were ordered and on the way. On January 19, the school district developed a metric for schools to use to determine when a shift to remote learning is necessary (but no closures will happen at a district level, according to officials). Officials also tell Teen Vogue that there are no present testing shortages in the district.
Student organizers such as Tate from Chi-RADS say the massive swell in student organizing shows the inequities in America’s educational systems today. “I think it is very important that the youth want to speak, so that we do have our own proposals, and then we do show our voices," he says. "But I think it really shows that there is something wrong with the systems. It proves that there is something wrong — this would not happen if nobody thought anything was wrong. It wouldn't pick up. So you can’t ignore this.”
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