As COVID-19 cases continue to surge all across Southern California, a local school district is making a major decision about reopening classrooms. San Bernardino City Unified School District will not be offering in person classes for the rest of this school year.
"I'm sad for her because it's her senior year and she's not going to be with her friends so it's been hard on her," parent S'chelle Gibson parent said
Gibson has a 17-year-old daughter named Keishelle who is a senior at Cajon High School. Keishelle is one of 47,000 students in the San Bernardino City Unified School District who won't be going back to campus anytime soon.
"Missing prom, missing those pretty pictures and celebrate her graduation and stuff like that. I'm very sad for her," Gibson said
During a school district meeting Tuesday night, board members voted four to three to cancel in-person classes for the rest of 2020-2021school year.
Some board members like Dr. Margaret Hill argued for an option to possibly reopen at a later date.
"Because we aren't predictors. We don't know what's going to happen," Hill said.
But other board members cited the recent surge in cases in San Bernardino County.
"We are also looking at our numbers within our district within our city," board president Gwen Rodgers said. "We are in purple, deep, and it's looking like in the future it's going to even get worse."
Rodgers says it may be months before the county can flatten the coronavirus case curve and then move into the less restrictive red tier of the governor's safer reopening plan.
Coronavirus Hospital Use Projections Across the Country
This interactive chart uses model data provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to predict how the coronavirus will affect health care resources in different states. In states such as Florida and California, hospital bed use is projected to continue to grow into September and October. Most states have enough general hospital and ICU beds to meet demand, according to additional data from The Associated Press.
Sources: State hospital bed capacity data from the Associated Press. Model data provided by IHME. Note: The model assumes mask use continues at currently observed rates and the gradual easing of social distancing mandates continues. It also assumes the mandate would be re-imposed for six weeks if daily deaths reach 8 per million.
Credit: Amy O’Kruk/NBC
"We want to keep you and your student safe...and that's why we have come to a decision so you can begin to make the decisions you have to make around certainty and not unknown maybe we are going to come back not sure if we are going to come back."
Although some parents may disagree with the decision, Gibson believes her daughter's health is much more important than in-person classes.
"People are not being safe with social distancing, wearing the masks, and I just don't want it to happen to her at school," she said.
