Photos From the L.A. School Shutdown: Picket Lines, Meal Pickups & Lots of Rain
With classrooms shuttered, the district’s 420,000 students were spotted across the city as local institutions opened up their doors
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Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents roughly 30,000 custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers and other service workers at the Los Angeles Unified School District, walked off the job Tuesday. United Teachers Los Angeles, also in contract talks with the district, also joined the protest in support, beginning a three-day work action that should leave classrooms shuttered until Friday morning. (More background on the strike: Read about how it could prove to be a pivotal test for Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and why parents were expressing frustration last week about their leaders’ inability to avert the shutdown.)
With rain falling this morning, teachers marched, volunteers braved the elements to assist with meal pickup sites, and local institutions made accommodations to welcome some of the 400,000 students who may have had nowhere else to go today.
A brief collage of what this morning looked like with no schools in session:
A Los Angeles public school playground stands empty as Los Angeles public school support workers, teachers and supporters walk the picket line.
LAUSD tweeted this statement early Tuesday morning:
The Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald and other community members spent the morning assembling packed meals for LAUSD students.
What happens to the kids while schools are closed? The district posted student activities and resources to Schoology:
Many Los Angeles institutions opened their doors to parents in need of childcare. The Department of Public Social Services shared a free, drop-in recreation program from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. across 16 Los Angeles County parks for students to attend through Thursday:
The Natural History Museum of L.A. and Zoo also stepped in to provide free admissions for parents scrambling to find plans.
And this reporter noted more kids out than usual while on a grocery run:
Outside of Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, a signs reads “School resumes Friday, March 24” as UTLA President Cecily Mart Cruz addresses a press conference.
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