BRENTWOOD, Calif. — This week, Superintendent Austin Beutner re-opened the playgrounds at all elementary schools and early education centers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

It is a small step in the right direction for a group of parents, but the group said the restrictions are still too rigid.

Remy, who is 8 years old, went from counting down the days to return to school, to counting down the minutes until his mom picked him up. He said he was so excited when he was told Warner Avenue Elementary was allowing in-person learning, but after his first day in brick and mortar, he burst into tears.

“I was upset that it wasn’t like my normal. It wasn’t like how I thought it would be," Remy explained.

Remy’s mom, Danna Rosenthal, said it is like a prison. She said the kids are not allowed to do the activities they once did before. Students have to keep six feet of distance with their masks on, even outside and even though they are tested every week.

She also does not understand why her best-case scenario is to send Remy back to a hybrid-learning model. He’s only in in-person learning for about three hours and after that, Rosenthal said the students are given very little freedom in their after school program. Before this week, playgrounds were completely off limits. These are just some of the reasons she and other parents filed a lawsuit against LAUSD.

“I wake up every day and I’m so infuriated," Rosenthal explained. "I feel like my blood pressure is just boiling. I feel like my head is going to explode. I get all of these texts from all of these other parents and we are just like enough is enough. This has got to stop.”

Rosenthal said she’s done letting the school district make decisions for her kids so she joined with other LAUSD parents to form a grassroots, non-political organization called California Students United in an effort to be included in these conversations.

In their lawsuit, they are asking the schools to reopen completely, safely and following CDC guidelines in the fall.

"People can say that the school is open. It is not open. It is hybrid. It is half of what they were getting before. The instructional minutes are the least bargained by (the teacher's union) UTLA. What we’re really, really worried about is the fall," she said. 

Playgrounds at all of the elementary schools and early education centers are back open at LAUSD schools, but only one group of students will be allowed to use the playground at a time.

It is progress, Danna said, but she is still infuriated by the lack of education students are getting.

For her third grader, playing Roblox online is one of the only things he looks forward to these days. It has been a tough year and Remy just wants to get back to school, as he once knew it.

“I expected that it was going to be good and everything was going to be amazing but it turned out — at least I was in school but it isn’t full time and it’s annoying me now," he said.