California teacher who refused to return to in-person learning flies to son’s wedding in Mexico 

A California teacher who refused to return to in-person learning has infuriated parents by canceling her virtual lessons to jet off to her son’s wedding in Mexico.

The kindergarten teacher, who works for the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) in the East Bay, sent an email to families Monday telling them her online classes will be canceled for several days while she is on her trip ‘due to travel and limited family activities’. 

During those days, the children will be required to work on their own using ‘supplies and activities’ provided in advance, she said.  

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which has not identified the teacher due to concerns of harassment, the same teacher has chosen not to return to the classroom since the district reopened in-person learning last month.

Under district rules, it is voluntary for teachers to return to in-person learning and the teacher is within her right to choose not to, with no need for a medical waiver.

Similarly, it is voluntary for parents to send their children back to reopened classrooms on a hybrid schedule. 

It is not clear how many families with students in the teacher’s class opted in favor of sending their children back to school. DailyMail.com has reached out to the district for information.

In the email, the teacher said she would be traveling to Mexico for around 12 days in May for her son’s ‘long deferred wedding’ on May 19. 

She said she would continue to teach the children remotely during the trip but, for at least two days, her lessons would be canceled altogether. 

‘I will be traveling to Mexico for my son’s long deferred wedding on May 19th, (after school) for approximately 12, (+/-), days,’ she wrote.

‘While I will be teaching from Mexico, some days will contain asynchronous lessons due to travel and limited family activities,’ she wrote, pointing to May 20. 

She also cited her return date as a day when classes would be canceled but could not yet confirm the date to parents due to her mother’s health. 

‘All supplies and materials will be provided ahead of time for any class activities that will take place while I am out of the country. Please contact me ahead of time if you have any concerns. Wishing you a sunny week ahead,’ the teacher wrote. 

The email sparked outrage among parents who questioned why the teacher will not return to the classroom due to COVID-19 but is happy to jet off on a plane to a foreign country. 

One parent sent the email onto California education advocacy group Reopen California Schools, which posted a screen grab of the memo on Twitter while slamming the teacher’s actions as ‘unreal.’  

‘UNREAL!!! Teacher for @WCCUSD in CA cancels class time and assigns homework instead to attend son’s wedding in Mexico. Half the teachers for WCCUSD, including this one, were allowed to stay remote for ‘health’ reasons,’ the group tweeted. 

Social media users jumped on the matter hitting out at the teacher’s ‘hypocrisy’.

‘So she’s afraid to teach cause of COVID, but can leave the safety of her home to attend a wedding,’ one person tweeted.

‘The hypocrisy is unbelievable! And how is attending a wedding, abroad, with presumably lots of people, safer than teaching in person, especially since children are not vectors and schools are not super spreaders?’ chimed in another.    

As well as drawing the ire of parents who want to get their children back to the classroom after a year of remote learning, the teacher also appears to have violated policy around annual leave.

Under district rules, teachers must take a leave of absence when they leave the country.  

District spokesperson Robert Jordan confirmed to the Chronicle that ‘any travel outside of the country for any reason requires a leave of absence.’

The incident is being looked into, Board of Education Trustee Mister Phillips said, confirming that ‘there are protocols for employees to take time off. I do not know if they were followed in this situation.’ 

All 54 WCCUSD schools started welcoming students back for in-person learning from Mondays to Wednesdays on April 19 – more than one year after the pandemic shuttered schools and plunged much of the nation into lockdown last March.  

The district’s ‘Voluntary Spring In-Person Intervention and Instruction plan’ is voluntary for both staff and students with the district saying its ‘ability to serve students in-person during the spring is based on staffing capacity’. 

Where a teacher continues to choose to work remotely, a classroom aide supervises students in person in the classroom.  

The district said it had identified its top five percent highest needs students and made sure it had enough staff in place to meet the needs of them.

The plan had been approved last month by staff members.  

Reopening schools has been a source of tension for months as parents and lawmakers pushed for a return to classroom learning, while teachers and teachers’ unions put up roadblocks.  

In March, Governor Gavin Newsom said he was allocating 10 percent of the state’s supply each week to teaching staff in an effort to get schools back up and running. 

Now, more than 50 percent of the population in California have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Yet, many schools continue to offer hybrid teaching and some schools are still closed altogether.

Research has shown that both the grades and mental health of students suffered from at-home learning, particularly among already vulnerable children.  

An October article by the American Psychological Association cited concerns about ‘how kids will cope psychologically with the ongoing loss of access to the friends, teachers, and routines associated with going to a physical campus’. 

Howard University professor and psychologist Celeste Malone warned that children of color and less well-off backgrounds were at the greatest risk of facing mental health challenges by missing out on classroom learning. 

‘Communities of color typically have reduced access to mental health providers, but these kids need support more than ever right now,’ she said.

‘They are more likely to have parents who are essential workers and experiences of grief and loss because of COVID, plus they are seeing persistent police brutality and unrest.’ 

Meanwhile, teachers’ unions said staff were at risk of contracting COVID-19 by returning to the classroom. 

There is no official death toll for teachers during the pandemic but the American Federation of Teachers, one of the biggest unions, said it knows of around 530 school staffers who died from COVID-19 last year.  

California Governor Gavin Newsom passed a $6.6 billion package earlier this year to get schools back up and running in the state.

The package included $2 billion to help districts resume in-person learning by April 1. 

The governor said it was not essential for teachers to be vaccinated before they returned to in-person learning.

This matched the federal stance, with Joe Biden making it a priority in his first 100 days to have most schools reopened and the CDC saying there is little evidence of the virus spreading in schools.