As families work to adapt to unpredictable schedules and uncertainty about the educational future of their children under COVID-19 restrictions, some are demanding action from their districts, such as Bob Shenefelt, an activist who has a child attending Birmingham Groves High School.
Shenefelt recently spoke with WJR’s Frank Beckmann about what he is asking the Birmingham School District to do for families and students. He was preparing to join others for a protest over the school’s planned policies and procedures for the coming school year.
Shenefelt said his family and the other families protesting have always been involved in their children's educations and in the school district.
“To us, the community is based on -- and the cornerstone of it -- is the public school,” he told Beckmann. “And we love our city, we love our school, we love our school district.”
The online instruction model students experienced in the spring left many of them struggling emotionally and mentally, as they lost the community connection that attending school and participating in school activities provided, he said.
Shenefelt had the opportunity to sit on a panel discussing the mental health aspects of the various learning models for the fall, and he found that most mental health professionals were advocating for students to get back to their regular routine, he told Beckmann.
When the school district had offered an option for families to choose not to send their children back to in-person instruction, Shenefelt said he thought that was a suitable option.
“And then to keep it safe, it was going to be an a.m. session and a p.m. session to have less kids, but to have them in-person, and to hopefully still have the extracurricular and sports,” he told Beckmann.
Additionally, for children such as his who learn best in an interactive environment with other students, it still ensured their needs would be met.
Yet only a week after that announcement, the recommendation was put forward for all students to receive virtual instruction.
“We want to be heard. We want to be a part of it,” he told Beckmann. “And we’ve offered our time, our energy, our resources -- there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that can help figure out the technology or the safety measures -- and so, there’s a lot of people who are interested in this, and we want to have a friendly rally, just to show that we’re not alone and to show the district we’re behind them as far as -- you know, they have a lot to do, and we get it. We know that teachers have a lot of issues, so what can we do to help?"
Alerts Sign-up