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'We cannot keep our kids hidden forever': West Ada School District parents push for in-person learning

Some parents are now planning to rally on Monday at the West Ada School District office.

MERIDIAN, Idaho — A unified effort is underway among some West Ada School District parents.

They're urging the school board to change its decision to start school online and instead allow parents the choice of sending their kids back to school in-person.

David Feldman is a parent of two students in the West Ada School District. His frustration stems from parents like himself sharing their need for their students to return to school in person and feeling as if the school board ignored him. 

To voice his frustration, he wrote an open letter and outlined all the frustration he and his wife were feeling and shared it on social media. In less than 24 hours, the letter garnered a lot of attention. 

“The majority of parents, teachers, everybody in this community wants their kids back in school and they feel like they understand the risk and they're willing to assume that risk,” Feldman said.

His letter read in part: “We want you to stop following the crowd. stop participating in group think. stop doing things because you're worried what others will think! We cannot live in fear.  We cannot keep our kids hidden forever. We have to go back."

“When you look at the statistics, I also kind of discovered, not in detail, that this is a 99% survival rate, this is not going to kill half of our community if we go back to school," Feldman said. "Kids are already out there going to Roaring Springs, playing with their friends."

This is not to say all parents should be required to send their children back to school for in-person classes. However, Feldman wants the choice, and he is not alone.

“As a parent, I am just furious,” Kayla Isaacson, another West Ada parent, said. 

She is responsible for organizing an effort on Facebook to rally outside the West Ada district building on Monday. The rally is set to take place at 7 a.m. that morning.

“If my child last year had a fever, I wouldn’t send him to school and I think that's just a very normal role that every parent has,” Isaacson said. “If your kid is sick, don’t send them. It shouldn’t be any different now.”

 As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 2,000 people have joined the group. Two of those parents were Tamica Purdy and Matt Alesse. 

“We'll take on the risk as parents, that should be up to us," Purdy said. "We want them back in school."

Alesse feels Idaho should consider the "big picture" rather than looking at the total number of cases. 

“School isn’t just about learning, school is about building relationships, interacting with people,” Alesse said. 

Parents are not the only ones advocating for in-person learning. Jason Tidwell is getting ready to start his freshman year, and like thousands of others, he too wants to go back to school in person.

“We need to learn to live in the world that we have," Tidwell said. "We can’t always control what's going to happen in our lives and we need to continue and take the precautions, but we also need to learn to function in our everyday lives."

In a statement shared with KTVB, the West Ada School Board Trustee Ed Klopfenstein said: "We are in a pandemic, and CDH deemed Ada County's rate of infection is still too high in our community. teaching online is not want the board wants. We think the best place for our students is with their teachers and in school, but we want to do that safely and in coordination with Central District Health. So, having in-person classes is going to rely on lower infection rates in our county."

“They can take the CDH recommendation, but they need to ultimately do what’s in the best interest of the public and who they represent,” Alesse said. 

KTVB also reached out to Central District Health about the letter Feldman wrote. 

A spokesperson sent us a statement saying, in part, that COVID-19 “progression is unpredictable, treatment methods are highly variable in effectiveness, and health care resources could be wiped out in days in our small community should we see an extreme volume of cases occurring simultaneously. We recognize the challenges in educating our youth outside of lifelong practices that are being pushed to new levels every day. Fortunately, public health experts are not playing the short game and understand the severe consequences that may follow should best practices not be followed."  

The first day of school for the West Ada School District is slated for Sept. 8.

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