Students return to school after nearly two years behind screens

It’s been nearly two years since the Long Beach Unified School District sent tens of thousands of students home for online learning in the wake of an unnerving virus sweeping the nation.

Today, those same schools opened their doors to an estimated 68,000 returning students.

“Today is really about reclaiming what we’d love to do, which is educate children in our schools,” said LBUSD Superintendent Jill Baker in a speech at Roosevelt Elementary School. “And also to ease the burden on families who for 18 months have been their children’s teachers or their students had to be out of school.”

Long Beach schools first shut down in March 2020, with a brief return in spring of 2021 with 35,000 returning students and another 14,000 for summer school.

LBUSD’s reopening comes with a slew of health guidelines as school districts statewide work to prevent COVID-19 infections among students, especially given that children under 12 years old are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The reopening of LBUSD schools also comes at a time when the highly transmissible Delta variant is pushing COVID-19 case rates back to levels on par with the first surge in July 2020.

During a speech, Mayor Robert Garcia noted that a year ago Long Beach was the first jurisdiction in all of California to vaccinate teachers and educators, as well as the largest school district to bring back in-person classrooms in March due to mass vaccinations.

School Principal Alissa Gamboa speaks to students in Amy Baril’s fifth-grade class about the importance of school at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. Students returned to school for the first day of in-person classes on Aug. 31, 2021. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

All LBUSD staff and students attending in-person classes must be vaccinated or register for weekly COVID-19 testing. For unvaccinated students, excluding preschool classes, tests will be required for at least the first three weeks of school. Masks are only required indoors.

“It is inevitable that there might be some outbreaks. That is just what comes with the territory,” said California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. “And as our public health experts have said to us, the more you test, the more you’re going to find more cases. It’s what we do about it, in the quarantine, that makes a difference.”

Unvaccinated students who are exposed to COVID-19 will be required to quarantine for ten days from their first exposure or can return to school on their seventh day with a negative COVID-19 test taken two days prior.

In the midst of reopening, Thurmond fielded questions from a fifth-grade Roosevelt Elementary School class. A young student aptly asked, “Why are you here?” to a room of laughing officials and press members.

“We want all of our students to have a chance to do what you’re doing today, to be with your great teacher, to be with your friends in school,” Thurmond said. “And in order to make that happen, we have to show other schools that this can be done.”

Richard H. Grant contributed to this story.