Parents want right to send kids to school in-person

CONROE, Texas - We've heard plenty from parents who are concerned about their kids going back into schools while we're in a pandemic, but we met one mother who feels the exact opposite.

Lori Gasca wants the right to have her kids start school in the building and not online. "I am not minimizing that this virus is real,” says Gasca but even in the middle of a pandemic the mom of four says at the start of the school year parents should have the option to send their kids to school.

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"I'm not saying it's not dangerous but I'm saying life every single day has risks. Every single day. There could be a school bus crash”. Gasca has two kids in college and two at The Woodlands High School who, like the rest of the country, finished last school year online.

"My high school students had almost little to no education from March until the end of the school year."

"I would do better with a teacher there to walk me through it rather than not having any teacher at all and having to ask my parents for help,” explains 17-year-old Austin Gasca who plays baseball in a summer league and for The Woodlands High School.

"I saw with one of my children personally lots of signs of depression during the quarantine,” adds Mrs. Gasca who says she would feel comfortable having her kids return to the building as long as safety precautions were in place.

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"Wear a mask, use hand sanitizer, wash your hands, have social distancing."

Conroe ISD is starting school August 12 online only until September 8 when in-person learning will also be an option.

Because the Montgomery County Public Health District advised Conroe ISD to make that decision, Gasca says she and several parents plan to speak to health officials at a meeting on Tuesday to try to convince them to change their minds after according to the district 75% of parents surveyed chose to start school in person.

"I am not minimizing people who have compromised immune systems and people who have had family members die from this. That is all very real and my heart breaks for them but it is about a choice and it's about an option for the people who do want to go back to school,” says Mrs. Gasca.