The following letters were received in response to the story we published on Dec. 5, 2020, about the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) requiring online teachers to return to campus by Jan. 5 or take leaves of absence. You can read the original article here, and the Baron Banner Editorial Board’s opinion here.
To send a letter to the editor about any of the stories published on baronnews.com or to submit a guest-written opinion piece about any topic, email fvhsbaronbanner@gmail.com. The Baron Banner appreciates all such correspondence, and will publish material written by our student body provided it adheres to California Education Code 48907 (no material that is obscene or libelous or that incites disruption during the school day).
The following letters are published exactly as they originally appeared when sent to us; we have inserted editor’s notes in [brackets] to clarify facts but have not otherwise altered or omitted any content.
By Dayton Phan, Fountain Valley High School freshman
The order mandated by the HBUHSD administration is unacceptable and extremely unfair to the many teachers associated within our district who posses pre-existing medical conditions that place them at high-risk of injury or death from the coronavirus, as well as those who choose to remain home in fear of bringing the coronavirus to their loved ones who also possess such risk. The district’s poor ability to sympathise with the struggles and difficulties many teachers face throughout the pandemic is astonishing and shocking on many astronomical levels. This is a blatant display of the district’s greediness and apathy towards its staff. Such manners as this is highly unacceptable, as districts should place the well-being of all staff members above profit. Choosing to save money and raise profits by refusing to hire substitutes and force all teachers to attend school during such dangerous times cannot be tolerated nor condoned. The district is blatantly putting he [sic] lives of many working adults in jeopardy, as well as the family members they choose to protect by staying home. As a person who has family members possessing jobs in the education profession, I understand the struggles and difficulties that teachers face, as well as the stress that comes along with such job. This adds another constant fear and stress to the staff of HBUHSD who are at risk. We cannot allow such disregard to continue to occur. HBUHSD must reverse this order to maintain and preserve the welfare of our teachers, who work extremely hard to educate us.
By Fountain Valley High School Virtual Enterprise students
Dear Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees, Dr. Clint Harwick, Mr. Owen Crosby:
On behalf of Fountain Valley Virtual Enterprise and its students, we would like to express our displeasure with Huntington Beach Union High School District’s management and treatment of staff, faculty and students during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Throughout the process of reopening, HBUHSD has remained equivocal with their decisions, oftentimes not including input from the HBUHSD community in their final decisions nor informing us with information in a timely manner.
Most recently, HBUHSD announced that teachers would be mandated to return to campuses on January 4th, or forced to take a leave of absence [Editor’s clarification: the district told teachers they would return to campus on January 5]. This is an absolute disservice to teachers working in our district. Many teachers, including those who teach AP and Career Technical Education (CTE) courses, will have to take this leave of absence, requiring uncredentialed and under-qualified substitute teachers to teach their classes. AP classes are designed to move at an accelerated pace and prepare students to take the College Board’s AP test, and CTE teachers are often specialized to teach their specific class. Pertaining to AP teachers, the quality of our education would simply be compromised with a substitute in the classroom, who may not even be able to teach a college-level course. In our case, with Virtual Enterprise, our teacher has to be certified by Virtual Enterprise International to be the advisor of this course. Without our advisor/teacher, we would not be able to compete any longer. As students, we always look forward to competing, and have brought success on a regional, state and national level to Fountain Valley.
With safety being the number one priority during this time, several surrounding districts have responded by transitioning back to online learning. The state has been struggling with a rise in cases that has prompted a stay at home order in our region. California has experienced a 2.3% increase in COVID-19 cases (covid19.ca.gov), and is on the verge of 19,000 deaths. Many of our teachers are immunocompromised or high-risk for COVID-19, and forcing their return will only disregard the safety and well-being of all staff, faculty and students in HBUHSD.
Sincerely,
Justin Dang, Tiffany Nguyen, Shayla Pham, Vinh Tran, Lana Zaide
By Wesley Lin, Fountain Valley High School senior
The district should go completely virtual. From what I’ve seen there have rarely been more than 5 students in a classroom at once with the substitutes and that number’s only dropping every day since we’re essentially going into class just to get on a Zoom call. I myself switched from hybrid to virtual simply for convenience. What difference does it make that a teacher is speaking to us through a microphone instead of in-person? I’m still learning, and it’s definitely far more effective than having a less-qualified substitute take an experienced teacher’s place.
We shouldn’t be applying absolutes in times like these with such a varied cast of teachers from all walks of life. Sure, some already come into class to teach, but that’s their choice. If students are offered the opportunity to stay at home, why can’t that same courtesy be extended to teachers?
This decision is nothing more than a false dilemma: teach in-person and get paid or stay home and don’t get paid at all [Editor’s clarification: teachers who choose to stay home after Jan. 5 can use their normally allotted paid sick leave days]. The district presents these two as if they’re the only options when they clearly are not. If HBUHSD truly does value our teachers then they can go completely virtual, cutting out the substitute teacher as the middleman and therefore saving money to help pay our teachers themselves. Forcing immunocompromised teachers to make quite possibly a life and death decision for their paycheck is something the district seriously needs to reconsider. If they’re essential, then work to preserve their health rather than put them in harm’s way. Money isn’t worth more than human lives.
