Letter to the Editor: Standing by Cari White

Dear Editor:

I cannot remain silent after you recently published the Op-Eds written by Ernesto Rojas and Chloe Jane Reyes criticizing Downey Unified School District and specifically Dr. Cari White on May 27, 2020 and then their attempt to clarify on May 29.

I’ve been a teacher for 20 years--14 of those years here in Downey, and never have I experienced anything like this COVID-19 pandemic. I teach seniors and am a parent of a high school senior who also lost all of her senior activities. I have witnessed the sadness and sense of loss from the eyes of both my students and my daughter.

In their first letter, they accused Dr. White of being disingenuous because she was confident students would still be able to have their senior activities based on a March 12, 2020 Instagram post. Couldn’t one argue that rather than “a lack of realism and honesty in communication to seniors at DUSD,” Dr. White was communicating the optimistic hope that the seniors would be able to have all their activities? Back in March, the entire nation was learning new information about this NOVEL (as in brand new with little data available) virus daily. Of course things would change. They failed to mention Dr. White’s 30+ Instagram posts dated after that which all contained information, encouragement, and just plain love for our school and our students.

We as a school, district, city, county, state, and nation have learned quite a bit more since March. Instead of casting blame and accusations of “false narrative,” couldn’t they both have shown grace and compassion to a person in a unique and unprecedented situation during which the information was changing daily? I believe Mr. Rojas is studying to be a physician. Shouldn’t he know better than to cite an outdated Instagram post and use that as the basis for his criticism of Dr. White and DUSD? I’m surprised your publication even felt that a March 12, 2020 Instagram post had enough relevance to be used at the end of May in an opinion piece.

Life isn’t fair. We can’t always control what happens in our lives. Both Mr. Rojas and Ms. Reyes are young and with more life experience, I hope they begin to understand this lesson a little better. Perhaps they will figure out how to make it better rather than blame others or write Op-Eds to be “controversial” when things don’t go the way they are intended. We don’t need controversy right now. We need unity. I stand by Dr. White and DUSD, and I thank them for all they have done for everyone in our school district.

Kimberly Kropf
English Teacher, Warren High School