"We Are Tired of Waiting": Oakland Students Prepare to Strike For Better Covid Protections

“They want us to stay in person but won't take the safety measurements that they should be”

Middle school and high school students in Oakland are preparing to go on strike over poor conditions in schools and a lack of strategy on how to handle rising Covid cases. 

A list of demands was signed by over 250 students in the Oakland Unified School District. They are giving administrators just over a week to make their schools safe before walking out on January 18. 

“We took matters in our hands,” Nikayla Dean, a sophomore at MetWest High School, told me. “Not just with the strike but some people are trying to raise money to go get the KN95 mask and for weekly testing.”

It’s a sad but telling commentary on the status of pandemic preparedness in US schools that kids are being forced into taking such steps in order to protect their health. I talked to students in the district about their hopes for the action—and why they’re taking this action. 

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