After a year of distance learning, this year's beginning of the school year has been more chaotic than ever. Although it is many parents, students, teachers, and staff wish to return to full in-person learning, but with the recent spread of the contagious delta variant, many people are becoming more concerned about going back to full in-person school. Some of the reasons why schools should offer distance learning along with in-person learning include, COVID-19 cases are being found in schools from districts that already began school, lack of social distancing being practiced, (serious) issues with the current independent studying program, and controversy over mandates. 

First, with back-to-school season beginning, some districts already began full in-person learning. As a result of that, COVID-19 cases are being found in schools from those districts. For example, Brentwood unified school district from California already has discovered nearly two dozen coronavirus cases among students and staff just after reopening less than a week. This shows that the virus, especially the delta variant could still spread among younger and vaccinated people. Also, more kids are recently getting sick and filling up hospitals beds due to schools reopening and the highly contagious delta variant. Therefore, offering distance learning is a solution to this case because fewer people in school would mean fewer people spreading and catching the virus in general. 

Next, California schools lack the practice of social distancing because the California law/order states that social distancing is not required to be practiced in schools, which facilitates the spread of the virus. Practicing social distancing has always been important. It is one of the basics of safety because it has always been used to limit the spread of the virus in general as viruses spread easier when people are clustered than when they are more dispersed. Although severe symptoms occur rarely among children and vaccinated people, low risk doesn't mean zero risks. Also, recent studies show that the lambda and epsilon variant of the coronavirus is more resistant to the vaccine. Therefore, it is not worth rolling the dice on younger kids and vaccinated people as they could still get very sick and spread it to their families, friends, and loved ones. Offering distance is a good solution to this issue as fewer people would be in school and this would mean the easier it is to practice social distancing.  

Thirdly, the independent study program, which is the current method of "distance learning" has some very serious flaws. One of the serious flaws of this method/program is that not everyone has the ability to learn and study as effectively if they studied independently compared to if they met with their teachers daily. As a result of this issue, the demands for "distance learning" appear to be lower than they should be mainly because students who participate in this program will fall even more behind than their peers who participate in normal distance learning and in-person learning. Therefore, offering normal distance learning is a better method than offering an independent study program because most students who participate in normal distance learning will fall less behind than they do in independent studying programs as students will meet with their teachers daily when doing regular distance learning. 

Lastly, mandates such as masks and vaccines are difficult to follow because they've caused much controversy across the country by people against them as many people have protested about them. In fact, some parents claim that "kids can't breathe" while wearing a mask because it is uncomfortable to wear a mask for about 6-7 hours a day as it is hard to breathe in them. Also to make matters worse about masks, many people experience lightheadedness and dizziness after wearing masks for an extended period of time, and this will greatly negatively impact students' school performance. As for vaccine mandates, not everyone is comfortable about getting the vaccine mainly because of its side effects. Therefore, it is hard to require everyone to follow the rules as easily as it seems because not everyone is comfortable with them. In this case, offering distance learning would cool down some controversy caused by mandates because people who don't want to wear a mask for about 6-7 hours a day or get vaccinated have a choice than just rather being uncomfortably forced to do so.

California schools should offer distance learning for the 2021-2022 school year as students and staff are getting infected by the virus, schools lack the practice of social distancing, the current independent study program has its own serious flaws, and much controversy is currently being caused by mandates. Offering distance learning is not only fair, but a safe and effective way to slow the spread of the virus (delta variant) as students have a choice to pick rather than just being uncomfortably forced, and safety protocols would be easier to follow on school campuses. Don't roll the dice on children and sign this petition today as their health and lives matter!