Calabasas Parents Place 168 Empty Chairs In De Anza Park

CALABASAS, CA — 168 chairs spread across De Anza Park is a striking sight. Now try multiplying that by one million.

On March 3, UNICEF released a report that 168 million children around the world spent over a year were outside of their classrooms, and 214 million children missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning.

That didn’t sit well with Calabasas parent Jessica Taggart, who founded the group Open Los Angeles Schools Now, which advocates that every student have the option to remain in-person all day long. To illustrate the number of children missing out on all the benefits of learning in a classroom, Taggart called around the community and received 168 chairs and 168 backpacks. On Sunday, she and some friends assembled them in De Anza Park, and placed them in front of a fake blackboard announcing that 168 million children are absent from school.

Taggart and a group of about 10 other students and parents met at Las Virgenes Unified headquarters in Calabasas on Sunday and marched down Las Virgenes Road to De Anza Park demanding a full reopening.

“When you see a group of empty chairs like this together, you realize that these kids are so empty right now,” Taggart said. “We wanted people to feel something for the empty kids on those chairs - how these kids have been made invisible.”

Taggart wanted at least the backpacks to be full, and is currently collecting donations of gently used books and school supplies to fill them up and give them to charity.

Some may find the timing of this march and installation to be unusual, given that all LVUSD elementary school students are now back on campus for hybrid learning, and the remainder of district students are set to return on Monday. LVUSD is the first public school district in LA County to bring back middle and high school students, just like it was the first public school district in the county to bring back elementary school students, according to Superintendent Dr. Dan Stepenosky.

But Taggart feels that just two and a half hours a day is insufficient. Furthermore, students in grades 7-12 will only be on campus about two days out of the week, and spend a lot of time doing “asynchronous learning,” which Taggart feels is code for doing nothing.

While the district says that students will spend that time studying, doing homework, taking tests, or working on independent projects, Taggart isn’t so sure. “They’re not gonna sit on their own independently teaching themselves concepts - they’re gonna be on YouTube or TikTok, in pajamas,” she said.

The district was not available for comment, but as even Taggart admits, many district parents do not agree with her and have said they are satisfied with LVUSD’s virtual learning and reopening rollout.

“I know that it’s not all in the district’s hands, I know it’s in combination with what the county is allowing for, but I think we need the option to return all day, because this isn’t working for all families,” Taggart said, noting that her daughter’s academic performance has slipped over the past year.

On March 1, the day that fourth and fifth graders returned to campus, Taggart staged a sit-in in front of Arthur E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, where students and parents held signs asking for full re-entry. This followed a Feb. 9 reopening protest at Chumash Park in Agoura Hills that included LVUSD parents, students, teachers, and LVUSD School Board President Angela Cutbill.

Taggart said that she has invited the district to engage with them, and even asked Stepenosky to join the March 1 event, but she has not received any responses.

But as COVID numbers drop, district staff gets vaccinated, and more students return, classrooms are looking less and less empty.

Related coverage:

Calabasas Middle & High Schoolers Will Return March 22 | Calabasas, CA Patch

Las Virgenes Students Stage Sit-In Protest To Reopen Schools | Calabasas, CA Patch