CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) – San Juan Unified school students, parents and supporters held a Sit-In Protest joining the movement Open Up SJUSD on February 23, 2021. Assembling at several district schools, including the SJUS District Office on Walnut Avenue in Carmichael, the groups demanded the still unavailable in-person learning option under COVID.

Sit-In participant Tammy Shade demonstrated with her two boys and said it had been quite the challenge “constantly dealing with kids all day for almost a year now”. She says her sixth grader gets really tired of “watching a screen the whole school day”. The boy is a very social child and was really looking forward to all the band music, physical education and diversity of classes offered at middle schools.

UC Davis graduate, and father of two district students, Ken Firl joined the movement concerned that “it would take years for kids to academically catch up after this.” He said, “Most teachers would be here, but the main problem is the unions.”

The Open Up SJUSD Sit-In Protest came in between two scheduled clinics which vaccinated thousands of district employees in the last weekends of February. An agreement reached in November 2020 by the employee-represented unions and the district that once in the red tier teachers would return to in-person teaching, whether or not all are vaccinated, has had no effect in purple-tiered SJUSD.

The source of parent frustration, that not all counties, school districts or private schools are under the same phase restrictions, added to what is a serious learning loss and harmful effects to the mental well-being of their children.

Parent attendee Michelle Amiot said her kids transferred to Placer County schools but is aware of the Sacramento County situation. Amiot says she knows a lot of students from volunteer coaching girls basketball in Citrus Heights Kingswood K-8, and believes “many would not be failing this year at Mesa Verde and San Juan High Schools.”

Jeff Ratchford is concerned with his third and fourth graders at Deterding Elementary in Carmichael. He said, “With all the glitches last year, it was just a waste of time. If the school doesn’t open on its own, I’ll pull my kids off and send them off to St. John’s. We all look at teachers as heroes… and I see teachers shopping and doing things outside, but not for the education of our kids. They need to show some more courage.”