COVID: Delta Variant Fears Overshadow Oakland Students Return To Classrooms
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Students have mixed emotions about returning to class Monday in the Oakland Unified School District during the pandemic for the start of the new school year.
At Horace Mann Elementary, many students were arriving for their first day back in over 18 months with their parents in tow.
Fourth grader Kadari Roberts, who said he was not a fan of remote learning, was happy to get back to the classroom.
"It kept stressing me out with questions and stuff," he explained.
"They can't get everything that they need at home. They need to be here where they can get and comprehend everything that the teacher is trying to teach them," said his grandmother, Mary Simonton. "I like it better when they're at school because at home, they're not really focused."
Although most students are doing in-person, district officials said they still have a couple hundred students who signed up for Zoom school this year. In-person learning has brought a lot of emotions and an emphasis on health and safety.
The sign outside Glenview Elementary School reads "Welcome" and "First Day of School August 9th," but not everyone is ready to go back to the classroom.
Some Oakland Unified teachers say they don't feel safe going back inside the classroom with the Delta variant and no mandate for the vaccine.
"I feel extremely anxious. I mean, I've been having nightmares every night," said special education teacher Adarene Hoag. "I can't believe that we have a policy that basically means we're willing to infect our under 12 children, after they've gone through so much."
Hoag said she has requested sick leave and would teach virtually this year.
"I want all students to be vaccinated," she added. "Just wear a mask and cross your fingers - that's unacceptable. That's not what our children deserve, that's not what our teachers deserve, and that's not what our community deserves."
The Oakland teachers union ratified the safety agreement with the Oakland Unified School District on Sunday.
Highlights include ensuring that proper ventilation systems are installed. Supplies like masks, gloves and face shields will be supplied to everyone. Classrooms will be regularly cleaned and disinfected, and the district will offer COVID testing every two weeks.
"I say right now, tonight, the district needs to postpone opening campuses and open distance learning campuses on a mass scale," said special education teacher Mark Airgood.
Airgood says he's choosing to teach virtually.
"We cannot be sending children back to associate face to face with one another. It's going to spread and spike, it's really criminal," he added.
The president of the teachers union is personally calling for all members to get vaccinated.
"OEA, we don't have a formal position, however, I think it's something that is necessary," said Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown. "In absence of a vaccine for our students, it's important that people at the school sites are vaccinated, or that they have the ability and access to get tested frequently."
11-year-old Zelma Lopez is headed back to the Ascend campus as a 7th grader. She was last there as a 5th grader.
"I feel excited because I get to see my friends and my new teacher. I'm kind of nervous because of the COVID," she said.
Her younger sister Aury Lopez is starting 3rd grade.
"I'm a little nervous like all these rules like wearing a mask."
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Friday he feels confident in the state's current plans to reopen schools without a vaccine mandate.
Students have the option to choose distance learning instead of in-person. The district said that a few hundred have done so out of 36,000 students at the end of July.
