Administrators, parents, teachers and students clash in Berkeley over school reopening – CBS San Francisco

BERKELEY (KPIX) – As many teachers and their unions resist the call to reopen schools, the issue is at a political stalemate and a rally in Berkeley on Saturday brought out passion on both sides.

Parents, students and healthcare professionals gathered in a park next to Berkeley High on Saturday morning to discuss the health effects of not being in school.

“We are seeing increasing rates of depression, anxiety, social isolation, children are falling further and further behind academically and socially,” said Dr Dan Drozd, an infectious disease specialist.

Even the CDC now says that with the right masking and social distancing, the risk of infection for teachers and students can be outweighed by the damage from keeping them at home.

“There is no evidence that opening schools with these precautions increases community transmission and the rate of transmission in schools is extremely low,” said East Bay Hospital doctor Dr Shelene Stine. “We need to think about the safety of our teachers and our children from both angles.”

But not everyone was willing to hear this.

“You don’t like your teachers! … We’ve had enough of these people!” shouted Masha Albrecht, Berkeley’s top calculus professor, who interrupted the rally, saying she didn’t feel safe returning to class, no matter what medical professionals say.

“I’m especially angry with doctors who say ‘listen to the science’ like we can’t read the science,” she said. “I am a mathematician, I can read statistical studies. No one has shared anything with me that convinces me that it is safe to return to this school with a whole bunch of kids.

This prompted a response from Berkeley High Senior Noa Teiblum.

“They are infectious disease experts!” she says. “I mean, who are you to think you have more of a say in deciding what is safe or not than the infectious disease experts at the CDC?” It’s frustrating!”

Both parties are frustrated and neither seems to trust what the other is saying. This opens up a wedge between parents and teachers who could survive after the virus is contained.