LOS ANGELES — These days after classes, Michael Lee-Chang pulls up his mother's email inbox and finds the latest update of daily coronavirus cases at his school, Redondo Union High. The 18-year-old senior scans for other school announcements and uploads the information to his Instagram stories, where some 4,700 followers, mainly students, check out news otherwise sent only to parents.
Nearly 400 miles north, Nuriel Cahigas, 17, spends her evenings on Zoom with students from other Oakland schools going over organizing tactics. In between writing college scholarship essays and studying for Advanced Placement classes, the Oakland Technical High School senior has participated in a boycott that garnered national attention about concerns Oakland students have over districtwide coronavirus safety protocols.
In schools — where passions among adults have driven acrimonious debates and lawsuits over distance learning, masks and vaccine mandates — the pandemic has ignited a new chapter of activism among students in California and across the country since their return from winter break. Students have spoken out during school board meetings, fired up social media accounts, and organized boycotts, petitions and walkouts, efforts prompted by what they viewed as lax campus safety measures amid the surge of the highly contagious omicron variant.
