Oakland teacher points finger at rich white parents in reopening debate
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Oakland teacher and Secretary of the Oakland Education Association Bethany Meyer tweeted the above message on Feb. 17, 2021. It was later deleted.Twitter screen capture
An Oakland special education teacher who also serves as the secretary of the Oakland Education Association added fire to the growing school reopening debate with a pointed Tweet criticizing parent concern that distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their children s mental health.
Bethany Meyer tweeted on Feb. 17, All the rich white parents suddenly concerned about mental health can take a seat. Most of them are causing their kids anxiety by pressuring them to complete asynchronous work and feeding into their sense of entitlement. Sorry/not sorry.
Oakland teacher says rich white parents complaining about their children s mental health while schools are closed have made their kids MORE entitled and blames them for the increase in anxiety
Bethany Meyer is a special education teacher at Oakland Unified School District and secretary of the local teachers union All the rich white parents suddenly concerned about mental health can take a seat, she wrote on Twitter on February 17 about parents who were worried about how distance learning was affecting their kids
She said such worries were causing children anxiety and feeding into their sense of entitlement
Some parents accused the teacher, who is white, of speaking for black parents and assuming it is only white parents concerned about schools reopening
Oakland teacher points finger at rich white parents in reopening debate sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Oakland parents, school board members to brainstorm reopening schools
By James Torrez
Video: OUSD.
OAKLAND, Calif. - As California s stay at home order lifted last week, Bay Area school systems continue to discuss how to reopen public schools.
The Oakland Unfied School District does not have a timeline for when to resume brick and mortar instruction. Frankly, we don t really know, said spokesperson John Sasaki.
In the meantime, the district is putting together listening sessions between board memebers and parents. It s really about letting everyone know where we are as a district and how soon we could open with how things are in place.
We have to prioritize human life, said Mark Airgood, a special education teacher at Edna Brewer Middle School in Oakland and a site representative for the Oakland Education Association, the teachers union.
School district leaders submitted a plan to the Alameda County Office of Education Nov. 20 to allow the district to reopen at some point. The plan was made public Dec. 1.
District spokesman John Sasaki said the date for reopening is more of a hypothetical date because one had to be given to submit a reopening plan. The pandemic looked less severe several weeks ago than it does now, he said.