Denver elementary school students headed back to classrooms Monday amid a monthslong debate: While some teachers protest the return to in-person learning as too risky during the pandemic, some parents cheer the move as crucial for their children’s academic and social well-being. The school district insists that in-person learning is relatively safe.
“We understand that there are those concerns out there,” Interim Superintendent Dwight Jones said, “but we also clearly understand that we have to get our kids back in school. It makes a difference. They are safer in school. And they want to reconnect with their teachers.”
Given a choice between returning to classrooms or continuing to learn virtually, most students’ families chose in-person learning. The percentage and neighborhood. The latest shows that 42% of families in far northeast Denver chose virtual learning, compared with 27% of families in less diverse southeast Denver. About 40% of Black and Hispanic students chose virtual learning, compared with 20% of white students.
For months, some parents have publicly pleaded with the Denver school board to reopen schools while teachers asked for the opposite, sometimes tearfully. Last week, educators held a drive-through vigil outside district headquarters to illustrate the “human stakes” of reopening.
“I want to be in the classroom with my 4-year-olds, but not at the expense of my life or theirs,” Kathryn Quinn, a preschool teacher at DCIS Fairmont, told the school board last month.
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