News Update

Dozens of Richmond High teachers participated in sickout protest Wednesday in support of student demands

More than 30 of Richmond High School’s approximately 70 teachers participated Wednesday in a sick-out protest over the health and safety concerns of their students.

Richmond High’s sick-out was one of several to occur across the district since teachers and students returned from winter break amid the Omicron surge.

In an online petition to West Contra Costa Unified superintendent Chris Hurst and the district’s five school board members, Richmond High teachers said they were concerned about the school’s high number of Covid cases and quarantine absences, a lack of contact tracing and safety leadership, and the school’s design. Richmond High’s main building does not have any windows, and class sizes do not allow for adequate social distancing, according to the petition. The school also lacks air purifying systems in one of its buildings, and filters in other buildings aren’t being changed in a timely manner, the petition said.

“Unfortunately, these conditions have been overshadowed by the rest of the district — (such as) El Cerrito, Hercules and Pinole Valley — having more community resources and therefore (are) experiencing the pandemic differently,” the petition said. “Richmond High School, a school situated in a primarily working-class community of color, has different needs that are being ignored by our district.”

Richmond High teachers are calling on the district to ramp up the number of testing sites, offer twice-a-week PCR and rapid testing, supply students with more at-home tests, increase the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) in classrooms, provide KN95 and N95 masks to students, form a “formal Covid team,” provide “equitable accommodations for students experiencing Covid” and offer more learning opportunities to students who are unable to be in school.

District officials weren’t able to immediately provide Wednesday’s attendance rate.