Parents protests St. Landry’s decision to go all virtual learning for students
OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) — Parents in St. Landry Parish are not happy with the school board’s decision to take away their choice between virtual learning and the classroom. Parents say they are having difficulty navigating the program, or their work schedules don’t allow them to stay home with their children.
School started just a few days ago for most students. Now parents in St. Landry Parish are protesting for the right to send their children back to the classroom.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” said one protestor who asked to remain anonymous. “He gets kicked out of his classes. He can’t get back in.”
Parents in st. Landry parish organized a protest Thursday morning, standing against the decision made by parish school board officials to only allow virtual schooling. One parent says she is not able to stay home with her child because of work. Her child also has a disability, which makes it even harder for her son to receive the proper education.
“My child has ADHD, which virtual learning is not a good place for children with those kinds of disabilities because their attention span is zero,” she said. “They need that constant supervision and redirection which the teacher cannot do virtually.”
She says, although her child has the equipment he needs, the virtual learning program is not easy to navigate.
“I work. I am not able to help my child,” said the mother. “He is at home with his father, thank God. My husband is not tech-savvy, so it’s really hard because I’m getting phone calls, ‘How do I do this, how do I do that?’ I’m not there to look at it I’m not there to see it. So I’m going off memory on how to help my child do his work that he needs to do to get this education that he is not technically receiving. “