Obviously, all teachers and students would like to reopen the classrooms. E-Learning has been frustrating for teachers and students alike. However, it's not so simple as to just throw open the doors because we would all like things to get back to normal.
1. Classrooms are not designed for social distancing in mind.
2. Expecting students to wear masks all day is all well and good...and it will be just as mixed as it has been in greater society. Not helped by people under the age of 25 generally feel as though they're invincible and the part of their brain dealing with assessing risk management is not fully developed.
3. Covid is more likely to be spread in indoor areas. Perhaps in California there are many schools with open air hallways, etc. Not so in Illinois, where we have more extreme weather to deal with. Seven plus hours inside a school building five days a week doesn't seem wise under the circumstances. Not to mention that
this summer camp in Missouri had a massive outbreak among both staff AND students and isn't unique. If there can be huge outbreaks in camps that are mostly outdoors, that doesn't bode well for students and staff inside more than 7 hours a day.
4. Even if you feel "ok, so some kids got sick in that summer camp, but kids are still unlikely to have serious side effects," what about the teachers, staff members, and the students' and teachers' families that ARE in more susceptible demographics?
5. If a teacher gets Covid-will they have enough sick days? Beginning teachers get around 11 sick days a year in my district. Not normally a big deal and more than enough, but when Covid recovery can be much longer-how do you handle that? It's not a given that teachers will automatically receive any sick/emergency leave beyond that.
6. Building off of that, who on Earth would want to be a substitute teacher in a classroom/school that was potentially infected with Covid? It can be difficult to get a substitute at the best of times, now add a pandemic!
7. What does a school or classroom do if there is an outbreak? Does the school close down? Do you simply have the people you know to be infected stay home and hope there are no asymptomatic carrier? It's unclear.
8. From personal experience, I can tell you that there are some students who are forced to attend school even if they're sick because the parents simply can't stay home, lose a day's pay, and invite complications with work. If that's the case normally, how do you ensure that the same doesn't happen with covid?
9. Building off of that, schools are germ factories. Not in the sense that they aren't cleaned or sanitized frequently or well, but simply because you have so many people in such a contained environment. And again, if we can't assume that ADULTS will act rationally to limit Covid spread, we certainly can't assume the same with students, who will (justifiably) be thrilled to see their friends again and all thoughts of distancing will go out the window. We've seen clearly over the past several months that people are less likely to be guarded when there are friends and family involved vs. total strangers. And, you know, you can't assume that all sick children will stay home as they should. This means many schools will turn into petri dishes.
10. Perhaps other schools in other states will be more lucky, but I guarantee you we will not receive any additional support, funding, or consideration from the powers that be at the Federal Level (State level is also looking dubious at the moment) to deal with this unique situation.
11. What about people that have Covid but are asymptomatic? It's very unlikely that school districts will be able to afford testing every person in the building for Covid every single day.
12. And, of course, cases continue to rise and rise and rise in many parts of the country. Many counties and areas are starting to close down again. In such a situation, is the best thing really to force people into schools regardless of whether or not it makes sense?
Among many other things that need to be considered and decided.
All of us want to be back in the schools, teachers and students. E-Learning was a difficult process that only exacerbated many difficulties our students already faced. But swinging the doors open without paying attention to context or having clear protocols or plans in place is a recipe for disaster.
We can't just force Covid to go away because we're tired of dealing with it. The virus does not care. No, we will continue to deal with this and have numerous people become sick and die from Covid until we take this seriously. There is no sustainable recovery until we do so, period.
. I think him being so close in age to me is why I remembered him so early on, he's 21 right now and I turn 21 on the 26th so we're pretty close unless his birthday was sometime soon. In the past I've gotten in trouble online for not listening and breaking rules so I understand, but nowadays I don't do that and try to follow all the rules cause I would miss everyone here if I got banned even after a year of coming here. I wish him all the best, maybe he'll return under another name and we can piece it together...
