LAUSD Superintendent Questions L.A. County’s Coronavirus Priorities
While school’s remain closed,
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Board of Supervisors have allowed other businesses to open…
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner called into question Monday, Oct. 19, the priorities of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Board of Supervisors in choosing to allow certain business sectors to reopen before the vast majority of schools.As schools largely remain closed, the department allowed a series of openings in recent weeks including at outdoor casino cardrooms, breweries and parks as well as indoor malls and nail salons in accordance with state guidelines while the county was still under the most restrictive Tier 1 category.At the same time, the county is struggling to bring down its coronavirus case rates, which is preventing it from advancing to Tier 2 and allowing schools to further reopen.“Here in Los Angeles, it would be helpful to know more about how the virus is being spread,” Beutner said during his weekly address on Monday. “Elected officials at all levels are under lots of pressure to ‘reopen the economy.’ As card rooms, indoor malls and other venues where groups of people can gather are allowed to reopen, one starts to question priorities. If these can open without causing an increase in the spread of the virus, that makes sense. But if these openings are tied to increased cases and that increase in cases is keeping schools closed, I’ve a problem with that.”