Soooo… the long awaited announcement came from my kids’ school and if I am reading it correctly they are planning to return with little to no extra precautions.
Here is the exact wording: “The return-to-school plan requires parents and employees to ensure that only healthy individuals are entering the campus. The school facilities will receive increased levels of cleaning and sanitizing, as well as increased containment of groupings of students for the purposes of contact tracing, which may be required at any time during the school year. However, the disruption to typical classroom routines will be minimized to the greatest extent possible in order to support student and staff socio-emotional health as well s best-practices of instruction.”
I read it as: no health checks (just relying on people to stay home if sick); no social distancing; no masks anywhere; nothing different for transportation; no mention of limiting big gatherings like lunch and chapel; no plan in place for if/when someone tests positive (both for the rest of the students, and an online option for all of the school the student would miss.). I think the “increased containment of groupings” is referring to trying to keep kids moving from class to class with the same group, but I’m not sure.
Are you reading it this way?
This is a small Christian school in the south. Very conservative. I’m not meaning to take a dig at conservative Christians (because I am one), but I’m not really surprised that this is the route chosen. Our state is currently under mandatory mask requirement, which isn’t being enforced and therefore most people still aren’t wearing them. There is no mention of even following state orders. Our family has been very careful and my kids have decided that spending time with their grandparents SAFELY is more important than spending time with their friends UNSAFELY (as seen by teens all over social media). So, if they go back with just a little extra cleaning, I don’t think they will feel comfortable spending time with grandparents. They love their school, and my oldest is a rising junior so it would terrible to have to do something different at this point. But, what are my options? Change, or send them when we are uncomfortable?
Well, your young adult could choose to implement their own safety precautions regardless of what others are doing-wear a mask, socially distance, monitor their own health, go for periodic testing. Avoid the lunch crowd and visit the chapel for private prayer at off times if desired. Hopefully has a single, but even in a double, it could be done.
Seems really light on details. I’d expect/ask for much more info before I’d commit. As a tuition paying parent, I think you deserve more clarity and focus on protocols and guidelines. Those comments from the school read more like platitudes to me and not a well-thought out and communicated course of action on how to run a school during a pandemic.
I’m sorry, I should clarify. This is for middle school/high school. They have chapel once a week (with about 150 people attending), middle schoolers eat in a small cafeteria (ten to a round table), bussing to sports, small classrooms, busy hallways between classes etc. They will both have at least one class with 30 kids in a small space. As for the mask, both of my kids will probably wear them but imagine how hard that will be as middle/high schoolers to be the only one doing it. And from what I’ve read, that protects others more than it protects themselves.
Mask wearing helps both the wearer and others nearby. Definitely helps prevent spread. There are several good scientific papers on this topic. Not sure why this news hasn’t made its way to the conservative community, but I’m glad you’re asking. I can point you to some reputable source (New England Journal of Medicine and others) so you can read for yourself.
But to be honest, each state is handling this differently. We really need a unified approach to this virus. Your instincts are right. Keeping your kids healthy should be the primary goal here.
Here are what many high schools/colleges in my area are doing for the fall:
Large lectures will be held on-line only
Smaller groups (6-10) can be held in person with social distancing
Mask wearing will be expected in gatherings
No large gatherings or club activities - but can be done via Zoom
14 Day quarantine for students coming from high risk areas
Single rooms
Dining hall seating spread out - limit # of entering at a time
Anyone who shows symptoms will be put into quarantine - meals will be brought to their room
Bathroom occupancy is limited
This would be minimally helpful. If others around her are not masking, it is risky. That’s the conundrum of this virus. We cannot fully protect ourselves unless we stay home. Out in the world, each one of us has to take actions that protect others. Besides, the student cannot socially distance if a required class is in person without accommodations to de-densify.
I am in the south as well, and our school system has said face coverings will be required even for kindergarten if social distancing can’t be maintained. I do know what you mean about he conservative Christian angle. The south is full of people right now who downright refuse to wear a mask and a lot of them are evangelicals.
Can someone explain to this northeast Jewish liberal why mask-wearing is incompatible with being a conservative Christian or evangelical? I’m downright serious about this question. Isn’t service and helping your neighbor a fundamental part of the lifestyle?
The protection that most clothe masks provide to the wearer is pretty limited, especially after it has been on for more than an hour. The main protection is to keep droplets from spreading outwards. That is has always been the point of surgical masks - they protect the patient, not the doctor. If nobody else is wearing a mask, a person has to wear full PPE gear - a N95 mask, goggles, and head cover, to actually protect oneself indoors, and even that hasn’t helped many people who have had expensive exposure (look how many doctors and nurses were infected and died, despite protective gear).
@PickleParent The best thing you can do is to ask the school administration directly. If the students are living at home, the precautions that they are taking are simply not enough to keep COID from going through the school. If that happens, most of the kids will eventually get sick, one or two may die, and you could lose a large number of the older faculty and staff, as well as parents, grandparents, uncles, etc.
If the parents demand it, the school will implement it. If the rest of the parents do not want it, you may want to consider changing schools.
I live in the Northeast in a community which has been very hard hit. At first it was people’s elderly parents dying (sometimes losing a father and mother the same week, with four person funerals). Then it was younger people- doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists. And then it was people with no apparent link to the outbreak- don’t work in nursing homes, not elderly with emphysema, etc.
I think the rest of the country is catching up and catching on. OP- if your community starts to see “regular people” in the ICU-- and regular people being debilitated, disabled and dying- your school will quickly shift into crisis mode.
My friends who live in different parts of the country think that our lock down measures were ridiculous. I tell them about my neighbor- 45 years old, in great health, who spent 9 weeks in the hospital and is now home on oxygen, can barely walk to the bathroom without collapsing because her lungs are so compromised-- and they think “it can’t happen here”.
Maybe it won’t. But if it does-- things will change pretty quickly.
What does my neighbor do for a living? elementary school teacher. May have caught it from an asymptomatic student-- since after contact tracing it was learned that there was a case in the student’s family, but the kid was sent to school anyway before the lockdown…
@brantly The answer to your question is yes–service and helping your neighbor are an integral part of Christianity. I will do my best to not get on too much of a soapbox here, so let me just say that there is a subset of people who feel like “mainstream media” has been anti-Christian in their reporting so they no longer trust anything that comes out of it. As a result, seemingly any expert that is put in front of them is suspect. Maybe someone else can jump in with specifics about masks (conspiracy theories, etc?), but what I hear people saying is that Sars CoV2 is being blown out of proportion for political reasons, so they no longer see this from a public health perspective, but a political one.
But I want to state clearly: from this Christian’s perspective, we should be doing everything we possibly can (physical/social distancing, masks, supporting those in need, delaying church gatherings as long as necessary, etc) to love our neighbor (which means everyone–those with whom I agree and disagree, near and far).
In a poor economy, I would think schools that rely on tuition would be particularly open to addressing parental concerns. Write an email and ask for more details and clarification. Ask what the consequences will be for students and faculty refusing to wear a mask after being warned. Express your concern over the health of the school, particularly your student. It sounds like the school could be playing a middle road so as not to upset folks on either side of the issue. That’s fine from a marketing perspective, but you are entitled to know about the environment in which you are leaving your children for a good portion of the day.
The Catholic churches are doing a fantastic job protecting their flock. Masks and SD are required. Pews are blocked off, and ushers are disinfecting after services. They have eliminated hand shaking. Some places are taking names and phone numbers for contact tracing. Just want to point out that being anti-mask is not universally a “Christian” thing.
@PickleParent We have gotten somewhat fuzzy info about my kids’ private 6-12 school. Similar focus on supporting kids, enabling community. Changing to a block schedule to limit daily mixing, so now 4 classes a day only. Extended passing periods, no cafeteria, no assembies.
No mention of classroom densities or masks. I had assumed this was because they don’t know what the state regulations will be come August. They would have to comply, as any business would, to density requirements, masks etc.
Hopefully they just aren’t bothering to be more specific because they don’t yet know what the limits will be?
There are people everywhere, including in my northern New England town, who refuse to wear masks. Many of them aren’t evangelicals but preach the Libertarian philosophy. More to do with politics than religion, which I don’t get because taking precautions in a pandemic should NOT be political. But, I also don’t get the anti-intellectual bent of many in the country. I think the 2 are connected.
Williams just announced a 15 percent tuition reduction and provided students with the option to return with stringent testimg being provided and single room housing.
Here’s another question. OK, so many in that community don’t trust anything they see/hear on “mainstream media.” But are there not any doctors, public health professionals, or epidemiologists who are conservative Christians? Who belong to mega-churches? Can they not get the message out to their communities?
Ask the school what the plans are if there is an outbreak. If a child has covid-19 in their home, will that class be quarantined? What provisions are in place for teachers? How are they being protected? Do high risk teachers have the option to teach their classes virtually? Do high risk students (or ones with high risk family members) have the option to attend virtually?
The schools here are starting to announce their plans. There is always the availability of online schools too for those who don’t feel comfortable.
Honestly, there is no way to insure a covid free environment for 3400 students in one school. The schools have made the decision to reopen, told the parents what to expect, and now the parents and students have to make the decision of online or at the school.
Wow. In my district (as well as others in the state – there is now a statewide group – there is a big outcry for fulltime school, since kids don’t transmit the virus/kids don’t get sick (how wrong they are!), education is the most important pandemic consideration, parents need daycare, kids can be in abusive homes so they need to be away from them as much as possible, they need the food that schools provide, they will lose so much educationally if they aren’t in school…blahblahblah…oh, and they shouldn’t have to wear masks!
I wish they could read your neighbor’s story.
I believe we are the very beginnings of a spike in cases in my state…