'This is ridiculous': Columbus City Schools students struggle with virtual class, others join picket line

Sipping a Minute Maid apple juice box with a furrowed brow, Chernor "CJ" Bah shook his head.

The 13-year-old was supposed to start his first day of ninth grade at Columbus Alternative High School on Wednesday.

Instead, the frustrated teenager toggled through a series of portals and Google Classroom links on his Columbus City Schools-issued Chromebook inside the Linden Community Center, impatiently tapping his keyboard as the internet connection lagged. He said he didn't know how to access any information about the new school year, including his class schedule. He didn't even know where to search.

"I just want to get this day over as soon as possible," Bah said.

'Technology challenges':Columbus City Schools superintendent asks for patience

By 8:30 a.m. — an hour after high school officially starts for Columbus City Schools — the Sierra Leone native was nowhere closer to figuring out who his new teachers were; who, if any, classmates were also logged in; and what the American high school experience was supposed to be like.

In Ohio’s largest school district, nearly 4,500 teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, psychologists and other educational professionals who are members of the Columbus Education Association are on strike for the first time since 1975 after negotiations with the city's board of education broke off last Thursday. A federal mediator arranged for talks to resume at 1 p.m. Thursday at an unknown, secret location.

With only 600 substitutes mobilized to fill in for thousands of school employees, some Columbus City students who attempted to attend the first day of classes remotely struggled in varying degrees as the CEA members entered their third day of picketing. And across the city, hundreds of students joined their teachers on the picket line — many of whom were high schoolers and student athletes who expressed disappointment for the board's inability to reach a new contract with the union.

Columbus students struggle to log into virtual first day of school

The Linden Community Center is one of nine City of Columbus recreation centers that opened early for Columbus City Schools students who planned to virtually log in Wednesday using the Wi-Fi at those locations.

Bah's mom, Zainab Kalokoh, dropped her son off at the Linden center because she had received an email from the district informing parents that it would be a student resource center where someone would help kids sign into school and assist them through the first day of classes.

"I didn't understand what was happening," Kalokoh said. "So I brought him here specifically to know what the process is going to be like. We have internet at home, but I thought this would be helpful."

So far, that's been far from the case for Bah.

'Will not be intimidated':Several Columbus Education Association picketers hit by pellet shots

Columbus City Schools spokesperson Jacqueline Bryant told The Dispatch student resource centers like Linden Community Center are not intended to help students log into classes, but simply offer them a safe space with Wi-Fi.

Ambrosia Lamarr, the Linden Community Center's assistant director, reiterated Bryant's message.

"This is just a space," she said.

Around lunchtime, two older community members showed up at the recreation center to help wrangle the kids.

"We heard there was a need, so we're here to help," one woman said.

Lamarr spent Wednesday morning attempting to reassure worried parents and direct students into a meeting room full of folding tables and chairs. A piece of computer paper taped to one wall had the Wi-Fi network written in bold Sharpie.

Beyond that, there wasn't much Lamarr could do.

Columbus City Schools Superintendent Talisa Dixon acknowledged the district has had technology challenges Wednesday morning as students and families have tried to log on.

“I ask for their patience as we work through this challenging time,” she said.

Bryant told the Dispatch the school district anticipates that school attendance data will be at least a day behind because staff are taking attendance throughout check-in meeting with families at various times throughout Wednesday.

"Most check-ins and touch points with students will be staggered throughout the day in smaller group sessions to ensure accuracy and to allow principals to have more personal interaction with students rather than the entire building," she said.

The full day's attendance should be available by Thursday, Bryant added.

Some Columbus City Schools parents overwhelmed and confused

While some families had trouble logging on, others like Om Tiwari and his family didn't even know how to get their son, a first grader at North Linden Elementary, a computer.

Tiwari, who lives in Forest Park, said that there are parents like himself who cannot speak English, so he wasn't able to read the district's emails.

“We are not good at English, we don’t know how to read, so we get a lot of problems,” Tiwari said. “If we come in the school, there is an interpreter … today it’s like this, but all the teachers are on the (picket line).”

Ohio State University English professor Thomas S. Davis took to Twitter Wednesday morning to complain that the school district's "alternative opening" plan was limited to substitutes taking attendance and offering students "social and emotional learning" once a day.

"In short, the alternative opening is a plan to take attendance," Davis wrote. "That’s it. Students are not getting anything resembling an education. If you were worried your child would miss something by skipping the alt opening, rest assured they will not."

Back inside the Linden Community Center, 8-year-old Jeri Lankford struggled with the first day of school.

She loves school, and just got a brand-new lunch box and dress — a black jumper that has the words "Good Vibes Only" written in multicolored bubble print — for the first day of school.

Lankford had a 9 a.m. Zoom meeting with East Columbus Elementary School's principal, Jaime P. Spreen, where Spreen informed students and parents where they could pick up meals and how to access the online learning schedule. But when her mom, Tenelle McGrew, left the center, Lankford wasn't sure what to do.

She opted to watch YouTube math videos that helped her practice her times tables. A Dispatch reporter lent the 8-year-old a pair of headphones to listen to the video.

When McGrew came back to the Linden Community Center, she had someone from East Columbus Elementary on the phone, and tried to guide her daughter to the city's "Back-to-School" hub to access a computer coding lesson from Code.org.

"This is ridiculous," McGrew said, while searching through links on Lankford's Chromebook. "Our kids deserve to be able to go to school — that should be a frickin' no-brainer."

Bryant, the school district's spokesperson, encouraged parents with questions to call the Columbus City Schools help desk at 614-365-8425.

They can also text that number, she said.

'Why do they have to be so difficult?' Students join picket line, offer teachers support

Melina Spiropoulos tore her ACL playing travel softball this summer. That didn't stop her from hobbling up and down the picket line on crutches in support of her Whetstone High School teachers.

She and some of her classmates rallied their peers to join their teachers on the picket line instead of logging into online school.

"We feel bad for our teachers that they want to be in the classroom with us today but can't see us, so that's why we came out to see them," she said.

Many of the Whetstone students picketing are student athletes who said they're disappointed that their seasons are being affected by what they called the board of education's "greed."

"Why do they have to be so difficult?" asked Daylan Barnes, a 17-year-old Whetstone senior. "If I was a football player, I'd be so disappointed. A lot of us get out of here because of sports."

Spiropoulos is a senior on the girls' volleyball team. She's hopeful that Wednesday's negotiations will mean she and her teammates can have a full senior season.

On the Northwest Side, students like Centennial High School junior Dylan Osborne remembered how the ceiling would leak onto his desk during his AP U.S. History class when it was storming outside. He said he just wants to play on the golf team and participate in marching band.

“There are some concerns that need to be brought up to the board and they need to care more about it,” Osborne said.

Osborne and his friends marched with the teachers along the sides of Bethel and Godown Roads, deciding against “crossing the virtual picket line.”

Meanwhile, at the Columbus Spanish Immersion School, Anne Dison and her son and daughter brought towels and refreshments for the teachers who were picketing.

Jensen Dison, a first grader at North Linden Elementary, handed out around two dozen lavender, water-soaked towels and more than 20 cups of lemonade.

Jensen didn’t want to sign into class Wednesday morning without a teacher.

“What’s school without teachers?” Jensen said. “A teacher is supposed to be there every day, but substitutes, not every day.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus students struggle with virtual class, others join picket line