In the midst of the “Camp Fire” sweeping Northern California, Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) students called for class cancellations for days following a string of cancellations from other school districts and college campuses.
SCUSD released a statement on Thursday saying it would be cancelling November 16 classes after a week of students and parents calling for the schools to be closed.
Sacramento State announced cancellations on November 12 and have since moved to cancel class for the entire week. Los Rios Community College District made the decision to cancel all on site and online classes for the week on November 14. All in the face of categorized “very unhealthy” air quality that ranges four times above healthy air quality conditions.
On November 15 Downtown Sacramento measured a borderline hazardous AQI of 266 (PM 2.5) at 1PM.
A petition posted to Change.org calling for the cancellation of SCUSD classes had reached over 10,000 signatures by students and parents alike.
“I’m done sitting in class coughing all day with a headache! Please take our health into consideration,” said one commenter on the petition.
McClatchy students expressed some frustrations with the District over the choice to keep doors open throughout the week.
“I have asthma and couldn’t go to school, now I’m behind on all my work. So I definitely wish they canceled,” said Joe Ciminelli (‘19) on SCUSD not closing its doors on November 15.
Students also took to Twitter to demonstrate their annoyance in good humor. Mackenzie Crall tweeted out about the District’s decision to keep school’s open on November 15:
While Molly Robinson (‘21) tweeted out a meme targeting SCUSD and their supposed motive to keep students in school to keep attendance cash flow up:
Many students believe the District holding out on closing was in part due to the income provided by student’s attendance and took issue.
“The fact that the school is making money off of our own suffering…shows how messed up the school system is and the people that run it,” wrote Aldina Kelecija (‘20) to The Prospector.
“We already knew that the district doesn’t truly care about our health and safety, and this event just solidifies that fact,” said Grace Kline (‘21).
Rachel Halbo, a West Campus Senior and SCUSD’s Student Board Member, explained the District’s choice to not close schools on November 15, “One of the biggest reason behind not closing schools is because a lot of parents still have work. They have no where to put their elementary aged kids during the school day.”
Halbo added, “If the District was in it for money they would cancel school today and have us make it up after graduation…instead they have school today to provide students a safe place to be with supervision even though they are gonna lose a ton of money from people like me who aren’t in school.”
Most K-12 Districts have made the choice to cancel classes November 16. Elk Grove, Folsom and Cordova, San Juan, and Sacramento City Unified Districts will all be closing campuses.