COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Schools students didn’t imagine their first day back to school would be anything other than a normal one, especially after enduring a couple of years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What You Need To Know

  • As teachers continued their third day of striking, students from across the district joined them

  • Some students said they logged in for remote learning, but were met with only blank screens and some announcements

  • Parents supporting students on the picket line said there was a lesson to be learned

Several students described their first day as hard, frustrating and depressing, because they thought they’d be back in the classroom in person and not online.

For Larae Portis, it was a flashback and a setback.

“My first thought went straight back to COVID year where we were immediately online forever and then I was finally thinking ‘Oh, my senior year, we’re gonna have everything and stuff like that and then they said online.’ So, I was kind of disappointed,” said Portis.

With Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Education Association still at odds, some chose not to be in the virtual classroom on the first day of school. 

Instead of logging in at all or staying online for the day, students like Tyler Brown joined the picket line. That’s in part because when he logged on, he said he got blank screens and some announcements, but no school work.

“It was sad that not even work was required, cause that’s showing how much the board kind of cares,” said Brown.

His message for the board of education, “They should know that it’s not just the teachers fighting, but it’s also the students with ‘em.” said Traci Linger, Brown’s mother. “These kids really want people to understand what their teachers mean to them.”

As the school board and the teachers’ union met again Wednesday for negotiations, parents said they weren’t so confident that they could reach an agreement quickly. Rather, they understood the deal would take some time.

Still, they’re willing to hold out on having their kids log in online until educators come off of the picket line.