People from all over the district attended.
Over 50 people showed up to the demonstration held at 510 Pioneer St., Ridgefield, more than organizers anticipated.
Megan Roberts (second from left) has three children in the district and said she came to the protest because “she is seeing how detrimental online school is for her kids’ mental health and education.”
Many of the protestors advocated for reopening schools and making it a choice for parents, students and teachers on whether or not they will go in person.
Many age groups were present at the protest.
Parents, students and community members in the Ridgefield School District met outside of the Ridgefield Administrative and Civic Center (RACC) on Tuesday, Dec. 8, to advocate for opening schools prior to a school board meeting.
Parents, students and community members from all over the Ridgefield School District and greater Clark County met outside the Ridgefield Administrative and Civic Center (RACC) on Tuesday, Dec. 8, to advocate for the reopening of schools in the district. Due to safety precautions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in the Ridgefield School District have been closed to in-person schooling since mid-March and have been conducting education sessions entirely online.
Demonstrators began to appear along Pioneer Street outside the RACC at 4 p.m. holding signs advocating for the option of in-person schooling in the district. Alyssa Curran, a mother of four and a Ridgefield High School graduate, said she came to the protest to advocate the choice for parents, teachers and students to get back to physical classrooms.
Curran explained how she felt it was a “difficult decision on both sides” about getting back to school and felt that it should be a choice for those that want to come back.
“We don’t want to force anyone to go back to school (if they don’t want to) but we just want the option to do so,” Curran said.
Of Curran’s four children, her eldest two attend classes online in the Ridgefield School District and the younger two attend in-person classes at King’s Way Christian Schools in Vancouver. Curran said getting back to in-person learning has been a “night and day difference” for her younger kids, and she wants the option for her two older children to attend in-person classes.
Megan Roberts, another parent in the school district, echoed many of Curran’s points about making the return to in-person classes a choice and advocated for a return to in-person however it is feasible.
“I would support any way of getting back whether it's a hybrid, whether it's two days a week or Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” Roberts said. “Whatever it takes to have some type of in-person interaction.”
Roberts has three children in the school district and said she has seen many of the “detrimental” effects digital schooling has had on her children, such as her fifth-grade son losing some of his work ethic because he “sees his teacher as a computer” and learns better with in-person interaction.
“My fifth grader and third grader do so well when they’re with a teacher in person because they are motivated by them and motivated by their peers,” she said.
Roberts mentioned how, as a mom, she feels more like a referee of a soccer match when it comes to online schooling because she’s trying to keep everyone on their computers learning while keeping them separate from each other to keep the noise down.
Much like Curran, Roberts said she understands the COVID-19 fears of parents, students and teachers in the district, and like Curran, advocated for the return to in-person classes to be a choice.
“I respect the teachers and respect the fears they have and I understand that there are a lot of fears based around COVID, but I also think we can create options for people who need to get their kids back in school,” she said.
Curran, Roberts and Aja Shelton, a part-time teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School in Vancouver, all said they respect everything the teachers have been doing during this difficult time.
“I want to reiterate that we admire everything the teachers have done and have been doing,” Curran explained. “We want to have the option but also don’t want to force anyone out of their comfort zone.”
