Pennsbury Parents, Students Call For District To Resume In-Person Learning

A group of Pennsbury School District parents and students called for the district to return to in-person learning.

The group of about 40 people took part in a demonstration outside Pennsbury High School’s East Campus in Falls Township Monday evening. Posts organizing the rally appeared on social media late last week.

The school board last month approved an all virtual start with an option to move to a hybrid option come October. However, that might soon change.

A number of parents LevittownNow.com spoke with were fine with a virtual start to the school year in a few weeks, but they were rankled recently when the district administration recommended the school board vote this Thursday to extend virtual learning to January 29.

The recommendation to extend virtual learning comes as there is a growing debate and concern about returning to in-person classes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Combs, a Lower Makefield parent of seventh and ninth grade students, said he feels completely virtual classes until 2021 is far too long and worried about the quality of the online education.

“They should plan to open schools,” he said. “If private and Catholic schools can, then public school schools have the resources to do it.”

Combs said he understood the impacts of the virus, but felt the district had more than enough time to plan to bring students and staff safely back to buildings for in-person classes.

“Children need to be in school,” he said.

“I understand beginning virtual the first weeks of school, but pushing it to the end of the second marking period is too long,” said Jennifer Johnson, the parent to an incoming high school freshman.

The main issue for Johnson was the impact of being virtual only for so long could have on children.

With two grandchildren going into sixth and seventh grades, Phil Twietmeyer said he was expecting them to return to some form of in-person learning by October, but the news last week that it could be extended to 2021 disappointed him.

“They’re risking severe isolation and depression and even the sporting events are cancelled,” he said, noting learning from home for so long could negatively impact students.

Robert Bodine, a Pennsbury parent and salesman for a thermal scanning and UV cleaning system firm, said he was there not there to take a side but to talk to parents about their concerns.

“[The school district and school board] can’t be wrong. They need to put safety first,” he said.

In addition to parents and grandparents, a group of students held signs calling for in-person classes to resume.

Incoming high school freshman Natalie Johnson said she is disappointed to be doing virtual learning.

“I love sports and they just make me happy,” she said, noting she will most miss partaking in high school sports.

Presley Foote, an incoming ninth grader, said coming to school is a “safe haven for some kids.”