South LA Parents Outraged by UTLA President's Racist Comments on School Reopenings; Will Rally on Saturday

On Monday, California’s Governor Hair Gel was all excited to announce his “school reopening plan”; which is basically another ploy to try to regain favor with California constituents, who are upset with Newsom’s horrible leadership, which includes keeping schools closed to in-person learning for everyone else, while his children still enjoy that privilege. Just as with the sudden loosening of COVID restrictions in California counties, this urgency to now reopen schools is fueled by the fact that over 1.8 million signatures have been collected towards the Newsom Recall efforts. He knows he is going down, and is doing the usual gaslighting song and dance to pretend he is capable of righting the ship.

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No one is buying it, but Newsom was celebrating anyway. The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) President Cecily Myart-Cruz had her own press conference where she blasted Newsom on his reopening plan, claiming it was “propagating structural racism.”

From POLITICO:

“Myart-Cruz on Monday demanded that schools in Los Angeles County remain closed while in the purple tier and until all teachers and staff receive both doses of the vaccine, calling into question how much power the new deal will actually have to compel the state’s biggest districts to reopen.”

In case you missed it, Fox 11LA News also reported on Monday that Los Angeles County has its lowest COVID rates in months; under 1,000 new daily cases with a 3 percent daily rate of positive COVID-19 tests over 7 days, compared to about 20 percent in early January.

“That’s actually the lowest its ever been since we’ve been offering testing in the community,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.
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This didn’t stop Myart-Cruz from pouring milk on stupid, saying that Newsom and state lawmakers can

“increase the political pressure, but they cannot change the science.”

But she can ignore the science for her political ends. You cannot make this stuff up.

Then Myart-Cruz accused white, wealthy parents of increasing that political pressure and “driving the push behind a rushed return.”

If all of this political theater is doing anything, it is creating activists where none existed. Now, several Black parents in South Los Angeles decided to make their voices heard and let Myart-Cruz know she does not speak for them.

Bill Melugin reported last night:

Some of the parents that FOX 11 spoke with explained that UTLA doesn’t speak for them and now, they plan to hold a rally this weekend to call for their kids to return to in-person schooling.

“No one can speak for us better than us,” said Renee Bailey, a South LA mom.

Bailey wants both of her kids back to the classrooms at LAUSD schools. She has a 5-year-old and a 14-year-old son with an intellectual disability.

“He has the intellect of a three or four years old,” Bailey explained. “He needs schools for the therapies. The fact that he’s going on two years without his therapies, my son has regressed.”

Bailey says she was outraged when she heard UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz say on Monday that rich, white people are the ones pushing for schools to reopen and that Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to give grant money to schools that reopen faster is racist.

“If you condition funding on reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools that do not have the transmission rates that low-income black and brown communities do. This is a recipe for propagating structural racism,” Myart-Cruz said Monday.

Bailey called Myart-Cruz’s remarks “horrible.”

“Especially from a leader,” Bailey said. “Because that is a very generalized and almost racist comment in itself. As a culture, Black and brown people don’t want to be generalized. We don’t want to be stereotyped and to say reopening schools is structural racism, that’s wrong.”

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The “Open Our Schools” Rally is planned for next Saturday, March 13 at 11:00 a.m. at Ted Watkins Park (see below). Several groups are organizing the event, including “Women of Watts”, and youth football team LA Rampage.

LA Rampage coach Lamar Freeman also spoke out against Myart-Cruz’s remarks saying that Zoom learning has been reductive to his student’s progress.

Apparently the UTLA is feeling the sting, and trying to prove their case that the push to reopen schools is driven by wealthy white people. Jorge Ventura of Ventura Reports tweeted out an email from UTLA where they are conducting research and asking for information on race and class.

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The political theater abounds, and it is ridiculous. It should not matter if you’re blue or green, if you want your child to return to in-person learning, your voice should be heard and your wishes should be honored.

 

 

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