WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
Politics & the Nation
BY JOSH DAWSEY
AND YASMEEN ABUTALEBThe White House is forging
ahead with plans for at least 25
indoor holiday parties this month
despite the ongoing surge in coro-
navirus cases, ignoring warnings
from the Trump administration’s
own public health professionals to
limit travel and avoid congregat-
ing in large group settings.
The president and the first lady
are determined to have a final
holiday season in the White
House, officials said, despite a
pandemic that has killed more
than 268,000 Americans and in-
fected 13 million across the coun-
try. Many of the administration’s
supporters have taken a skeptical
view of the restrictions aimed at
combating the virus and are
choosing to attend, officials said.
They and others with knowledge
of the plans spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity to discuss them
frankly.
The events, including a con-
gressional ball on Dec. 10, will
each include more than 50 guests
and could risk the health of White
House staff members and others
who work at the parties. Most
guests will not be tested in ad-
vance, one official said.
At the first such event Monday
afternoon — a reception for volun-
teers who helped decorate the
White House — guests were given
champagne and snacks and min-
gled in the State Dining Room and
the East Room, among other plac-
es. Some did not wear masks or
adhere to social distancing, offi-
cials said.
The parties, likely to cost mil-
lions of dollars, will be paid for by
the Republican Party, according to
a person with knowledge of the
planning. Two holiday parties
were scheduled for Tuesday at the
White House, an official said.
Stephanie Grisham, a spokes-
woman for first lady Melania
Trump, said Tuesday that proto-
cols will be taken to protect at-
tendees.
“This includes smaller guest
lists, masks will be required and
available, social distancing en-
couraged while on the White
House grounds, and hand sanitiz-
er stations throughout the State
Floor,” Grisham said. “Guests will
enjoy food individually plated by
chefs at plexiglass-protected food
stations. All passed beverages will
be covered. All service staff will
wear masks and gloves to comply
with food safety guidelines. At-
tending the parties will be a very
personal choice.”
But health experts expressed
dismay at the plans, noting that
cases are not only increasing
across the country but also in the
Washington area specifically.
They added that travel by many
guests from outside D.C. probably
would violate myriad state and
city restrictions.
“Our rates in the area, just in the
region, are going up at a degree
where it’s hard now to trace or
identify sources of infections, and
testing alone is no longer protec-
tive unless you’re testing and tech-
nically quarantining, which I
doubt these people are,” said Kavi-
ta Patel, a fellow at the Brookings
Institution who worked on health
policy in the Obama administra-
tion. She is also an internal medi-
cine physician who sees covid- 19
patients at Mary’s Center, a com-
munity health clinic in D.C.
“While colleagues of mine are
literally leaving families and living
in garages and trying to help take
care of covid patients, this feels
like another slap in the face. That
is a disaster,” Patel said.
Across Washington, many busi-
nesses, trade associations and po-
litical groups are not having holi-day parties this year because of
concerns about spreading the
deadly virus. Millions of families
nationwide have also canceled
plans to gather in large groups.
One White House ally said he
had been invited to two parties
already, while another said a for-
mal invitation to one event includ-
ed no guidance on masks or social
distancing. Invitees include do-
nors, lawmakers, senior staffers
on Capitol Hill, family members of
White House aides and prominent
conservative supporters. The
president and first lady are expect-
ed to make appearances at the
events, officials said.
The parties are a bipartisan an-
nual tradition, and many guests
residing outside Washington visit
the city for the fetes. There isconsiderable interest among Re-
publicans on Capitol Hill in at-
tending the parties, a senior Re-
publican aide said.
Some of the events are tours,
while others are formal receptions
with food and drink offerings.
There will be two parties a day on
some days, officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention says that indoor
gatherings pose more risks than
outdoor ones and that “gatherings
with more people pose more risk
than gatherings with fewer peo-
ple.” But the CDC does not have a
limit on the number of attendees
for gatherings.
Still, the administration’s lead-
ing scientists have asked Ameri-
cans to be particularly careful over
the holiday season. Health offi-cials have repeatedly warned the
White House against hosting in-
door events, but they have re-
signed themselves to the fact that
Trump and his aides will ultimate-
ly do what they want
“I blame the White House for
hosting as much the guests who
choose to attend knowing that
good public health behaviors are
not practiced in and around the
White House,” one senior health
official said.
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s
top infectious-disease expert,
warned about a rising surge in
cases due to holiday events on
NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on
Sunday.
“What we expect, unfortunate-
ly, as we go for the next couple of
weeks into December, is that wemight see a surge superimposed
on the surge we are already in,”
Fauci said. “I don’t want to fright-
en people, except to say it is not too
late to do something about this.”
Fauci also floated some addi-
tional restrictions he said the
country might have to consider.
“We are going to have to make
decisions as a nation, state, city
and family that we are in a very
difficult time, and we’re going to
have to do the kinds of restrictions
of things we would have liked to
have done, particularly in this hol-
iday season, because we’re enter-
ing into what’s really a precarious
situation,” he said.
Trump has shown no inclina-
tion to avoid attending large
events, even after contracting the
virus himself in early October.
A number of events at the White
House have previously been
linked to coronavirus outbreaks,
including a ceremony for Su-
preme Court Justice Amy Coney
Barrett’s nomination and an elec-
tion night party. Besides the presi-
dent, dozens of White House
aides, including the chief of staff,
the national security adviser and
the press secretary, have contract-
ed the virus.
Many aides say they believe
Trump’s mishandling of the virus
is one of the primary reasons he
lost the election to President-elect
Joe Biden, who has endorsed
mask-wearing and other restric-
tions aimed at limiting spread.
“The White House is... send-
ing out 2020 with a bang. Indoor
gatherings like this at a time of
high community spread of SARS-
CoV2 puts revelers at the White
House holiday party at risk, as well
as staff who must work the event,”
said Gregg Gonsalves, an epi-
demiologist at the Yale School of
Public Health. “It’s characteristic
of the irresponsibility that has de-
fined this administration’s ap-
proach to the pandemic. It’s cava-
lier, selfish and wrong.”
[email protected]
[email protected]White House set for packed party season despite virus
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
The United States Marine Band performs during a holiday event Monday at the White House. Most
guests will not be tested for the coronavirus ahead of seasonal White House parties, an official said.Administration pressing
on with plans for at least
25 indoor holiday eventsBY BRITTANY SHAMMAS
AND MORIAH BALINGITWeeks without classes. A WiFi
hotspot shared by three siblings.
Broken laptops and unreachable
teachers.
These are some of the things
Black and Latino families in Cali-
fornia say they have had to con-
tend with since schools shuttered
in March.
Seven families are now suing
the state of California, charging
that it has failed to ensure “basic
educational equality” for Black
and Latino students and for stu-
dents from low-income house-
holds in the shift to remote learn-
ing brought on by the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
The lawsuit lays out the obsta-
cles students have faced, includ-
ing sporadic instruction and a
lack of access to laptops or reli-
able Internet. Those issues, along
with an absence of training and
support for students, parents and
teachers, have exacerbated long-
standing inequalities, it says, and
the state has not enforced mini-
mum standards set by the state
legislature.
“The change in the delivery of
education left many already-un-
derserved students functionallyunable to attend school,” said the
complaint, which was filed Mon-
day in the Alameda Superior
Court. “The State continues to
refuse to step up and meet its
constitutional obligation to en-
sure basic educational equality or
indeed any education at all.”
The state Board of Education,
Department of Education and
Superintendent Tony Thurmond
are listed as defendants. Jesse
Melgar, a spokesman for Gov.
Gavin Newsom (D), defended the
administration.
“Throughout the pandemic
this administration has taken
important actions to protect stu-
dent learning while also taking
necessary steps to protect public
health,” he wrote.
Thurmond said in a statementthat “there is no question that
this pandemic has dispropor-
tionately impacted those who
have been made vulnerable by
historic and systemic inequities.”
But the state has worked aggres-
sively to meet students’ needs, he
added.
“Since the spring we have se-
cured hundreds of thousands of
computing devices for students,
pressured internet service pro-
viders to expand access, bol-
stered mental health and coun-
seling resources, made it easier
for schools to provide meals, and
provided published guidance
and dozens of training opportu-
nities for educators to strengthen
distance learning for our highest-
need students,” he said.
Large districts in the statehave largely remained closed as
their communities continue to
battle a surge in coronavirus
infections. The state added more
than 12,000 cases to its total
Tuesday, the day the suit was
filed.
The plaintiffs include a cohort
of low-income families of color
who in the lawsuit shared their
struggles with bare-bones re-
mote education. Eight-year-old
twins from Oakland were getting
just 45 minutes of live instruction
a day and 30 minutes of group
time with classmates but are
otherwise on their own. Last
spring, after schools closed, their
teacher held class only twice
before the school year ended,
according to the lawsuit.
A 5-year-old girl and her 8-year-old sister living in south Los
Angeles were given broken lap-
tops last school year and were
forced to learn through their
parents’ phones. Another family
from Los Angeles had three chil-
dren sharing one WiFi hotspot
that frequently cut out, hamper-
ing their attempts to learn any-
thing.
Lawyers for the families are
calling for the state to pay for
remediation to make up for lost
learning and “equal access to
educational opportunities for all
California students, implement-
ed with meaningful participation
from low-income, Black and
Latinx families.” They are also
asking for attorney’s fees.
[email protected]
[email protected]Families sue Calif., saying Black and Latino students not given fair education
They say remote learning
has left behind kids who
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