Downtownâs Camino Nuevo Charter Academy recently began offering testing at Dalzell Lance High School.Â
Adriana Abich, CEO of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, said the testing site was started because they are aware that people of color have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus outbreak.Â
Camino Neuvo serves mostly Latino students, as well as many students from low-income families, mixed-status families and immigrant families.
âWe are an organization that has been here for 20 years,â Abich said. âWe are a part of this community. And weâre dedicated to the total well-being of our students and our families. And so starting a testing site was just like the most natural thing to do to support our families and the community that we work in.â
All in-person instruction and childcare programs for students within the Los Angeles Unified School District have been suspended as the region continues to see a rise in COVID-19 cases, Superintendent Austin Beutner announced Monday. We re not just an academic institution - obviously. We want to be sure that we re being part of the solution, said Larry Boone, principal of Dalzell Lance High School.
This week, their efforts appear to be paying off with an impressive 400 of 500 appointments made on Monday. Varisel Aposta came because she has a family member that tested positive. If we don t know that we have a positive, then it keeps going and going you know, said Aposta, who s glad it s being offered here.
COVID pandemic: LA charter school group hopes to break stigma, get Westlake community tested
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Camino Nuevo Charter Academy has been offering free COVID-19 testing at Dalzell Lance High School since October, but it s taken some time to get people in the MacArthur Park and Westlake communities to actually show up. They re scared to get tested, they re embarrassed to get tested, said Adriana Abich, the Camino Nuevo s CEO.
Because of this, the charter school group has ramped up its efforts to reverse the stigma and therefore reduce the spread, especially now that numbers are up. By us hosting this, we re making it normal, we re making it a positive place where parents and families know that they can get support from us, said Abich.