Community pushes to reopen schools with car rally in DTLA

Open Schools car rally

LOS ANGELES - Students planned to make their voices heard Monday by participating in a car rally in downtown Los Angeles with the hope that officials would reopen schools for in-person instruction.

The Students First Coalition "Open Schools Car Rally" was set to take place between 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at 500 West Temple Street.

"The Car Rally is a safe and responsible way to protest school closures that have kept hundreds of thousands of L.A. County students out of classrooms, isolated, and many without access to the tools to learn. It also represents the sacrifices students have had to make because of the government's response to the pandemic," the coalition said in a press release.

"It’s been crazy. It’s my senior year and when the pandemic happened at the end of my junior year, it was crazy enough just to try to do my AP tests online and it switching to only being an essay rather than being multiple choice and then even applying to colleges not even really know if I’ll be able to return to school," Sophia a senior at Village Christian School told FOX 11 about her distance learning experience. "Now still being on Zoom I cannot tell you the amount of times my head has hurt after school by being on Zoom. I’ve tried the glasses. I’ve tried going outside for all of it but there’s nothing like being inside the classroom.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said evidence suggests in-person schooling can be done safely.

However, local officials have pushed back and said case numbers remain too high in Southern California for a safe return.

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