Students hit hard as L.A. community colleges scramble to respond to coronavirus
On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles Trade Technical College student Milagro Jones logged onto his laptop from a one-bedroom apartment in south Los Angeles to attend an online class on human evolution. His 5-year-old daughter, Lydia, at home from preschool, played nearby.it would suspend most in-person classes due to the novel coronavirus.Advertisement
The uneven response is disrupting the lives of students who rely on campuses not only for education, but also for essential services such as food, healthcare and help with financial aid forms.The vast majority of the district’s 230,000 students come from low-income households. Many are food and housing insecure. An estimatedto care for. Their ability to complete their higher education goals is tenuous even under ordinary circumstances.
The district created a COVID-19 response team earlier this month to come up with immediate plans of action for health and safety and continuity of operations. Officials have approved $450,000 for supplies and overtime for custodial staff, purchased VPN licenses so more employees can work from home and placed orders for thousands of laptops. They are also rolling out a new platform for online counseling three months ahead of schedule.
One counselor showed up for in-person training Monday, where she said she was in a room with 30 to 40 other faculty members, including visibly sick ones, and no hand sanitizer. Angel, 25, has relied on the school library to access expensive textbooks. She also runs a student club that invites local activists and social justice leaders to come talk to students. Most crucially, she helped establish a resource center for “Dreamers” like her on campus, where she would go two or three times a week to use the computers, print course material to read on breaks from her job, and attend workshops on financial aid, legal matters and stress relief.
Meanwhile, clerical and custodial staff said they felt “abandoned” by the administration and unclear on the guidelines of whether and where to work.
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