"School serves important functions besides learning. What we have learned so far during the pandemic is that the effects of being out of school will fall disproportionately on those who are already disadvantaged…
At the Title I public elementary school my son attends, many of his classmates live in public housing and get free school lunches. Some are the children of refugees who don’t speak English. What will a year of this do to them and their futures? As a shift worker myself, I feel a kinship with the parents who work the night shift at McDonald’s, but their problems far outnumber mine. Who will watch their kids when they wake up bleary eyed with only a few hours of sleep? Now they’re also being tasked with teaching their elementary schoolers to add? Not only that, but schools provide speech therapy, psychiatric support for children with emotional and behavioral challenges, and nutritional support for the millions of families in this country living with food insecurity. Children stuck at home can be the victims of abusive family members with no possibility of escape or no unrelated authority figure to intervene, and children spending additional time on the internet for their schoolwork may be vulnerable to internet predators or sex trafficking. On a less tangible level, elementary school is where our children begin the path to being functioning adults, and the social impact of depriving them of that experience, with no identifiable substitute, could be catastrophic…
Besides all of these known, established roles of the school in the community, COVID has created the need for another one: the role of schools in disaster recovery. COVID is a disaster like no other the world has experience in our lifetimes, and children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of disasters. Damon Coppola, who advises the United Nations on COVID recovery, details the critical but often overlooked role of schools in recovery in the book Managing Children in Disasters. Restoring the infrastructure that protects children in a situation that causes them stress and anxiety is crucial for their well-being."
While I agree with the quote, I do not think that it is reason enough, on it’s own, for me to send my rising HS junior to a crowded classroom, crowded hallways, and crowded staircases. Especially, with our state’s infection rate.
@Rivet2000 First of all, a high schooler is different. Second, if your kid is not disadvantaged, it’s not about you and you can keep your kid home without adverse consequences.
@itsgettingreal The lead was : “Another article about why we should reopen k-12 to the best of our ability (written by an ER doctor)” so my reply was specific to my public school k-12 kid and not my grad school young adult.
This was an argument for opening k-12 in general, so I assume that since I live in a community that would be impacted by such a decision that my opinion is valid regardless of my income.
Does anyone really doubt that more kids will die if school is closed from other causes (gangs, gun violence, drugs, suicides, accidents and child abuse) than they would have from COVID if schools were open?
Duke also emphasized there will be a covid code of conduct that includes limiting gatherings to 10 people on campus or not. My daughter is fine with being back of campus if she can have small study groups or a handful of kids watching a movie/socializing. Even if the bigger lectures are online, some small discussion groups etc being available will make all the difference.
As someone with two rising freshman,one in high school and one in college, I certainly would like schools to be open full time for students.
My 9th grader had an abysmal experience in the spring. Distance learning in our county (MD) was a complete joke. These kids are all going to fall further behind if this doesn’t change now. I am fully prepared to send him back full time and certainly hope that is an available option.
I would love for my college freshman to go as normal too but UMD has thrown a wrench into that gear. They are saying if you come to school and they shut down the campus and go online students are still on the hook for full room and board. Even if they just go for two weeks and shut down. I don’t see that being fair. He’ll probably end up doing online courses from home. Sad.
This is a really tough problem and I’m not really sure what the best path forward is. On one hand kids staying at home is not the best for many reasons, on the other hand, kids getting parents infected and not able to work or help their kids is also bad. I want to see our final local k-12 plan before I make a decision, but the options they present now are, IMO, a recipe for disaster academically and for public health.
Unfortunately, students are not the only people on a K-12 campus, there are older adults like faculty, admin, maintenance workers, staff who might be more at risk.
With that said, I think most schools can and should be open if they modify the class schedule, try their best to social distance while on campus, and have everyone wear masks (other countries can so it, so can the USA).
Parents who work outside the home, need to be able to go to their jobs without worrying about watching their K-12 kids all day long. We need to take CV-19 seriously, but we also need to go back to a semi-normal routine or the consequences will be felt for decades.
Many people, including college students, do not go to the clinic or hospital for what they perceive as minor unwellness. Sometimes, one may not even realize that one is sick, if the symptoms are very minor (note also that COVID-19 may be contagious in pre-symptomatic infected people).
That article suggests that they are fairly accurate at high readings, but become less accurate at low readings. But then, for monitoring COVID-19 at home, wouldn’t any low reading be reason to seek additional medical help, even if it is somewhat inaccurate?
I was watching the news with my son the other night and a story about the politicization of masks came on. He looked at me and said, “If these maskless idiots spent a night with me transporting Covid patients to the hospital they’d put a damn mask on. Once you see how sick these people are, how much pain and distress they are experiencing, you realize you don’t ever want to get this virus.”
He had to go to our local hospital yesterday for an x-ray. During their standard patient intake procedure they asked if he had been around anyone with Covid, or Covid like symptons recently. He replied, “Oh yeah, serveral…” He said the look on their faces was priceless. Once he explained he was wearing the appropriate PPE at the time they proceeded without hesitation.
Today the Rescue Squad called him to do a “risk assessment.” Apparently a patient he transported for non-Covid reasons three weeks ago ended up being positive, after the fact, for Covid. They went over the call, procedures followed and PPE protocols employed and determined he had little, to no risk of infection. Even though he was inside a cramped ambulance with the patient he had goggles, gloves and an N95 mask on and all patients are masked before entering the ambulance.
He’s going back to school. He’ll follow the school’s guidelines even though he lives off campus. He’ll avoid parties. He’ll social distance. He could be the poster child for their policy because he’s seen firsthand what this virus can do, and he respects it. But…he’ll get in that ambulance for at least one shift each week while at school. He will most certainly transport more Covid patients, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic. Should he be allowed on campus? He hasn’t broken any rules, but I guarantee he’ll be exposed to the virus over an over. If they have an app to pre-screen each day how does he answer the “Have you been around anyone with Covid-like symptoms” question?
On a positive note, should one of his roommates get sick he’ll have appropriate PPE, a thermometer, pulse oximeter, stethoscope and blood pressure cuff in his EMT gear bag.
Interestingly, I read a rumor that the next generation Apple watch will have an integrated pulse oximeter function. The Whoop fitness bracelet supposedly can help catch early signs of Covid prior to symptom onset as well. Maybe schools should buy everyone a Whoop, like the PGA Tour did for it’s golfers.
Texas Gov Abbott finally issued an executive order to all counties (with 20+ CV-19 cases) to wear a mask in public. Surprised it took so long to make this decision…
Going to see a lot more masks on Texas college students in the fall.
GKUnion thank you for your son’s service as an EMT. During both Covid and non-Covid times these first responders are invaluable. You must be so proud of him as you should be.
@Empireapple Thanks! He’s been on an upward trajectory since his freshman year and I can honestly say he’s becoming his best self. I’m really proud of him, but worried for his safety as well. When you hear the stories he tells it makes you realize how tough some people have it. Most of our kids generally take for granted how lucky they are. I certainly did at his age.
I think the same emt population dealing with issues in the inner city and rural poor that deal with suicide, violence and drug issues could say the same thing about keeping all of these less affluent families from college and k-12 campuses as well.
Food insecurity as well.
Yes, if your kid has their safety, good internet, stable homes, quiet comfort to study from their own room and plenty of food. Sure a gap year or another remote year seems viable. It’s just not the reality for millions of young people.
This is not cut and dry. This is really serious and has incredible down stream issues that won’t make the news feed tonight.
Haverford’s plan is out and my D peeked at the new fall course schedule. She’s worried she’ll be lonely and starved for physical affection (she’s a hugger) since even suites aren’t classified as a safe haven- masks except in their individual rooms is how she reads it.
I know the schools are earnestly trying to make the return to campus as safe and workable as they can but the more I read the various plans the less and less appealing it becomes. One person per table in the dining hall, masks everywhere except in your dorm room…Feeling sad for the disruption and upheaval all the students are and will be dealing with for the foreseeable future.
I really don’t get Duke’s idea of allowing small parties. So you go to a party with 10 people on Saturday night but someone there has the virus. On Sunday you hang out with another 10 kids watching sports on TV, and then you go to town and have dinner at Chipotle with 4 friends. Then on Monday you go to 2 study sessions with 4 people each, and you hang out in 2 other people’s dorm rooms. Same thing on Tuesday. Wednesday you feel kind of meh so you stay inside and Thursday you go get tested and realize you have it. So if no one at those small gatherings were wearing masks, I wonder how many other kids you gave the virus to, And how many people those kids came into contact with and how many of them got it?
I agree with @vpa2019. This is all discouraging. It feels like there are no good solutions.