COVID - recent numbers - fall

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

+1 million

Remove the overly restrictive testing and extended isolation requirements. For everyone. Teacher, staff and students.

This. Anyone who thinks masking is the key to keeping schools open is delusional (literally, at this point in the pandemic).

There are efforts brewing to advocate for mandatory masking this Fall. If you disagree, please let Dr. McKnight and the BOE know ASAP. The prioritization of COVID to the exclusion of all else in MCPS needs to end.

If the CDC recommends it you know that MCPS will follow it.

True, although I'm not sure the CDC will recommend universal mask mandates in schools at this point.

Fauci was just on the news this week talking about masks.

I would hope the CDC doesn’t recommend mask mandates (especially for kids!), but I guess we’ll see.

I’m a teacher and parent. I don’t want a mask mandate. I hated teaching while wearing it.
However, I also don’t want major disruptions due to large numbers of kids or staff out. So, while I would not be thrilled by a mask mandate, I see it as the lesser inconvenience.

agree

It's so hard to know the best way to proceed. Maybe start with masks on and see how it goes?

I'm very COVID cautious (maybe anxious), but I have come to understand that people who deal with the public daily, like teachers, cashiers, and airport and airline staff, ideally should have a choice about whether to mask. I will wear a mask when I'm in a store, airport, or school to avoid spread, but I'm not going to expect workers to mask for 8 plus hours per day at this point in the pandemic.

I will respectfully point out that by your own logic, masks should be OPTIONAL.

You and your family are welcome to wear masks, if it makes you more comfortable! Nobody is telling you not to. And just like you deserve the choice, the rest of us also deserve the choice to let our kids go without masks.

So, no, we should not start with masks being required. We should start the school year with masks optional, just as we ended the school year last year.

I agree that they should be optional. I guess the piece that troubles me is that there's nothing built in to deal with disruptions.

I should also say that my personal views come from a parent of older children who don't mind wearing masks. Maybe it's because of the things they lost during the lockdowns, but they want to play in the big games and attend the significant events, so wearing a mask at school is worth it to them. They are old enough to decide that mask wearing to minimize disruptions to their day-to-day lives is worth it.

but that logic rests on the proposition that without masks, they would not be able to do those things. and that's not true at all. it's only "worth it" to them because they've been led (gaslighted, really) to BELIEVE that without masks, they won't be able to do those things...my kids' school didn't require masks at all last school year and guess what, they still attended sporting events. they had homecoming and prom. they played on their teams. they lived their lives.

No, they have been told that they will miss these events if they are sick, and the risk of getting sick increases in times of high community spread.

That is why we need to eliminate the overly restrictive quarantine policies. No good reason to push these policies on kids when these quarantine policies are not being enforced anywhere else in society.

+1 if you feel sick, stay home. that should be the policy.

This.

That’s our policy. No good comes from testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost all students were masking at my child’s high school even after the mandate was lifted.

Almost none of the students were masking at my child's high school after the mandate was lifted.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

This. Plenty of teachers could have come in to work at various times during the last school year, but were forced to stay at home due to unreasonable isolation requirements and inappropriate quarantine regulations.

In my department I know of two teachers who had to stay home several times due to exposure in the fall/winter as they were IMO selfish anti-vaxers. I know of one teacher who tested positive but had no symptoms. (Which means he would have spread it around since he didnt usually wear a mask if he did come in.)

Weird that people think they are smarter than the CDC on this forum.

That comment is so 2020. Get with the times, PP.

Choosing not to be vaccinated is NOT selfish. We know that vaccinated individuals can still transmit Covid.

It is selfish to expect other people to make the same medical decisions as you, without knowing anything about their situation.

anti-vaxers are horrible people

So are people vaccinated spreading it. B

Exactly. You know what was selfish?

All those people who got vaccinated and threw away their masks. They felt overly confident and walked around saying ‘I’m vaccinated, so I don’t need a mask!’ They we’re out there spreading Covid all over.

So masks until when exactly?

DP and I want to know, too. When is it enough? If you can’t come up with a reasonable timeframe, you can’t claim those of us who push back on indefinite masking are being hyperbolic.

How about local cases below the 50/100k mark?

How about no?

Local hospitals are not overwhelmed. Basing on numbers of cases is ridiculous. You can ask us to mask up if hospitals start to get overwhelmed. Other than that, there is no good reason for a mask mandate.

And if that does happen to be the case, it needs to be masks EVERYWHERE. Not just kids in schools.

Oh, I see—your question was pretextual for you getting to rant more.

Oh, I see - you want us to mask forever. I mean cases below the 50K mark? You basically want our 4 year olds to be masked without an end in sight.

We are talking about mcps and school aged kids. Very few are 4 and clearly you don’t care about their health or the fact they can get the new variant frequently. Nor do you care about others.

We need multiple layers of mitigation to get this under control and the do nothing crowd does not care about anyone but themselves. They will be the first to complain when their kids are sick or they have subs.

It IS under control. This is as good as it gets. If you find your home to be more Covid free than the general public, stay there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost all students were masking at my child’s high school even after the mandate was lifted.

So the mandate wasn’t even necessary! Kids will mask anyway if they want to. Sounds good to me.

No mandates, no quarantines. Bring on the school year.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

This. Plenty of teachers could have come in to work at various times during the last school year, but were forced to stay at home due to unreasonable isolation requirements and inappropriate quarantine regulations.

In my department I know of two teachers who had to stay home several times due to exposure in the fall/winter as they were IMO selfish anti-vaxers. I know of one teacher who tested positive but had no symptoms. (Which means he would have spread it around since he didnt usually wear a mask if he did come in.)

Weird that people think they are smarter than the CDC on this forum.

That comment is so 2020. Get with the times, PP.

Choosing not to be vaccinated is NOT selfish. We know that vaccinated individuals can still transmit Covid.

It is selfish to expect other people to make the same medical decisions as you, without knowing anything about their situation.

anti-vaxers are horrible people

So are people vaccinated spreading it. B

Exactly. You know what was selfish?

All those people who got vaccinated and threw away their masks. They felt overly confident and walked around saying ‘I’m vaccinated, so I don’t need a mask!’ They we’re out there spreading Covid all over.

So masks until when exactly?

DP and I want to know, too. When is it enough? If you can’t come up with a reasonable timeframe, you can’t claim those of us who push back on indefinite masking are being hyperbolic.

How about local cases below the 50/100k mark?

How about no?

Local hospitals are not overwhelmed. Basing on numbers of cases is ridiculous. You can ask us to mask up if hospitals start to get overwhelmed. Other than that, there is no good reason for a mask mandate.

And if that does happen to be the case, it needs to be masks EVERYWHERE. Not just kids in schools.

Oh, I see—your question was pretextual for you getting to rant more.

Oh, I see - you want us to mask forever. I mean cases below the 50K mark? You basically want our 4 year olds to be masked without an end in sight.

We are talking about mcps and school aged kids. Very few are 4 and clearly you don’t care about their health or the fact they can get the new variant frequently. Nor do you care about others.

We need multiple layers of mitigation to get this under control and the do nothing crowd does not care about anyone but themselves. They will be the first to complain when their kids are sick or they have subs.

It IS under control. This is as good as it gets. If you find your home to be more Covid free than the general public, stay there.

YES! This is as good as we are going to get for the foreseeable future. Cases will go up and down. As long as deaths and hospitalizations remain low, life should go on as normal. And our kids don’t need to bear any more of the burden than any other members of society.

[Anonymous]

Just the fact that this is a thread makes me glad that I now live in VA. There is literally no one in my county entertaining the thought that there will be any shutdown of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just the fact that this is a thread makes me glad that I now live in VA. There is literally no one in my county entertaining the thought that there will be any shutdown of schools.

Neither is anyone here. What a sad life...wasting your time reading forums of counties you don't even live in.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

+1 million

Remove the overly restrictive testing and extended isolation requirements. For everyone. Teacher, staff and students.

This. Anyone who thinks masking is the key to keeping schools open is delusional (literally, at this point in the pandemic).

There are efforts brewing to advocate for mandatory masking this Fall. If you disagree, please let Dr. McKnight and the BOE know ASAP. The prioritization of COVID to the exclusion of all else in MCPS needs to end.

If the CDC recommends it you know that MCPS will follow it.

True, although I'm not sure the CDC will recommend universal mask mandates in schools at this point.

Fauci was just on the news this week talking about masks.

I would hope the CDC doesn’t recommend mask mandates (especially for kids!), but I guess we’ll see.

I’m a teacher and parent. I don’t want a mask mandate. I hated teaching while wearing it.
However, I also don’t want major disruptions due to large numbers of kids or staff out. So, while I would not be thrilled by a mask mandate, I see it as the lesser inconvenience.

Thank you for your service! Just a thought - why not advocate for no more testing? If you have a fever stay home. If not get back. Who are we protecting at this point?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

+1 million

Remove the overly restrictive testing and extended isolation requirements. For everyone. Teacher, staff and students.

This. Anyone who thinks masking is the key to keeping schools open is delusional (literally, at this point in the pandemic).

There are efforts brewing to advocate for mandatory masking this Fall. If you disagree, please let Dr. McKnight and the BOE know ASAP. The prioritization of COVID to the exclusion of all else in MCPS needs to end.

If the CDC recommends it you know that MCPS will follow it.

True, although I'm not sure the CDC will recommend universal mask mandates in schools at this point.

Fauci was just on the news this week talking about masks.

I would hope the CDC doesn’t recommend mask mandates (especially for kids!), but I guess we’ll see.

I’m a teacher and parent. I don’t want a mask mandate. I hated teaching while wearing it.
However, I also don’t want major disruptions due to large numbers of kids or staff out. So, while I would not be thrilled by a mask mandate, I see it as the lesser inconvenience.

agree

It's so hard to know the best way to proceed. Maybe start with masks on and see how it goes?

I'm very COVID cautious (maybe anxious), but I have come to understand that people who deal with the public daily, like teachers, cashiers, and airport and airline staff, ideally should have a choice about whether to mask. I will wear a mask when I'm in a store, airport, or school to avoid spread, but I'm not going to expect workers to mask for 8 plus hours per day at this point in the pandemic.

I will respectfully point out that by your own logic, masks should be OPTIONAL.

You and your family are welcome to wear masks, if it makes you more comfortable! Nobody is telling you not to. And just like you deserve the choice, the rest of us also deserve the choice to let our kids go without masks.

So, no, we should not start with masks being required. We should start the school year with masks optional, just as we ended the school year last year.

I agree that they should be optional. I guess the piece that troubles me is that there's nothing built in to deal with disruptions.

I should also say that my personal views come from a parent of older children who don't mind wearing masks. Maybe it's because of the things they lost during the lockdowns, but they want to play in the big games and attend the significant events, so wearing a mask at school is worth it to them. They are old enough to decide that mask wearing to minimize disruptions to their day-to-day lives is worth it.

but that logic rests on the proposition that without masks, they would not be able to do those things. and that's not true at all. it's only "worth it" to them because they've been led (gaslighted, really) to BELIEVE that without masks, they won't be able to do those things...my kids' school didn't require masks at all last school year and guess what, they still attended sporting events. they had homecoming and prom. they played on their teams. they lived their lives.

Agree with this comment.

Whether my kids wear or a mask or not, they should be able to do all of these things. Without masks.

Families that njoy wearing masks can mask on until…. As long as they want! Nobody will stop them. It should be a choice. No good reason for a mandate.

You are missing the point. My kids don't want to miss out on these things, especially the really important ones, by getting COVID. One of the sports teams at my kids' school almost missed the playoffs because so many players had COVID at the same time. Several kids could not perform in the high school musical because they had COVID. My kids wants to do everything they can not to catch COVID and be on the field when it counts. Why is that so hard to understand unless you are the types that don't test when your kids have symptoms>

Again - the problem here is testing. It is not going away folks. Do we test for every other virus and stay home for 5 days? at this point it is a cold. The testing is the issue. Call me what you want. If my kids are sick with a fever they will stay home until 24 hours fever free. I am not testing them. Done. Again I ask....who exactly are we protecting by trying to mitigate the spread?

Kids are wearing masks out of fear of testing positive not because of what COVID will actually do to them and at this point we know that the masks won't even keep them from testing positive. So what are we doing folks?!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

+1 million

Remove the overly restrictive testing and extended isolation requirements. For everyone. Teacher, staff and students.

This. Anyone who thinks masking is the key to keeping schools open is delusional (literally, at this point in the pandemic).

There are efforts brewing to advocate for mandatory masking this Fall. If you disagree, please let Dr. McKnight and the BOE know ASAP. The prioritization of COVID to the exclusion of all else in MCPS needs to end.

If the CDC recommends it you know that MCPS will follow it.

True, although I'm not sure the CDC will recommend universal mask mandates in schools at this point.

Fauci was just on the news this week talking about masks.

I would hope the CDC doesn’t recommend mask mandates (especially for kids!), but I guess we’ll see.

I’m a teacher and parent. I don’t want a mask mandate. I hated teaching while wearing it.
However, I also don’t want major disruptions due to large numbers of kids or staff out. So, while I would not be thrilled by a mask mandate, I see it as the lesser inconvenience.

agree

It's so hard to know the best way to proceed. Maybe start with masks on and see how it goes?

I'm very COVID cautious (maybe anxious), but I have come to understand that people who deal with the public daily, like teachers, cashiers, and airport and airline staff, ideally should have a choice about whether to mask. I will wear a mask when I'm in a store, airport, or school to avoid spread, but I'm not going to expect workers to mask for 8 plus hours per day at this point in the pandemic.

I will respectfully point out that by your own logic, masks should be OPTIONAL.

You and your family are welcome to wear masks, if it makes you more comfortable! Nobody is telling you not to. And just like you deserve the choice, the rest of us also deserve the choice to let our kids go without masks.

So, no, we should not start with masks being required. We should start the school year with masks optional, just as we ended the school year last year.

I agree that they should be optional. I guess the piece that troubles me is that there's nothing built in to deal with disruptions.

I should also say that my personal views come from a parent of older children who don't mind wearing masks. Maybe it's because of the things they lost during the lockdowns, but they want to play in the big games and attend the significant events, so wearing a mask at school is worth it to them. They are old enough to decide that mask wearing to minimize disruptions to their day-to-day lives is worth it.

but that logic rests on the proposition that without masks, they would not be able to do those things. and that's not true at all. it's only "worth it" to them because they've been led (gaslighted, really) to BELIEVE that without masks, they won't be able to do those things...my kids' school didn't require masks at all last school year and guess what, they still attended sporting events. they had homecoming and prom. they played on their teams. they lived their lives.

No, they have been told that they will miss these events if they are sick, and the risk of getting sick increases in times of high community spread.

That is why we need to eliminate the overly restrictive quarantine policies. No good reason to push these policies on kids when these quarantine policies are not being enforced anywhere else in society.

+1 if you feel sick, stay home. that should be the policy.

This.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

I started feeling mild symptoms on a Friday last spring. By Sunday night I felt almost fully recovered and honestly could have gone back to work on Monday. If it were any other year and any other virus probably would have. By Tuesday it would have been a no-brainer.

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

This. Plenty of teachers could have come in to work at various times during the last school year, but were forced to stay at home due to unreasonable isolation requirements and inappropriate quarantine regulations.

In my department I know of two teachers who had to stay home several times due to exposure in the fall/winter as they were IMO selfish anti-vaxers. I know of one teacher who tested positive but had no symptoms. (Which means he would have spread it around since he didnt usually wear a mask if he did come in.)

Weird that people think they are smarter than the CDC on this forum.

That comment is so 2020. Get with the times, PP.

Choosing not to be vaccinated is NOT selfish. We know that vaccinated individuals can still transmit Covid.

It is selfish to expect other people to make the same medical decisions as you, without knowing anything about their situation.

anti-vaxers are horrible people

So are people vaccinated spreading it. B

Exactly. You know what was selfish?

All those people who got vaccinated and threw away their masks. They felt overly confident and walked around saying ‘I’m vaccinated, so I don’t need a mask!’ They we’re out there spreading Covid all over.

So masks until when exactly?

DP and I want to know, too. When is it enough? If you can’t come up with a reasonable timeframe, you can’t claim those of us who push back on indefinite masking are being hyperbolic.

How about local cases below the 50/100k mark?

How about no?

Local hospitals are not overwhelmed. Basing on numbers of cases is ridiculous. You can ask us to mask up if hospitals start to get overwhelmed. Other than that, there is no good reason for a mask mandate.

And if that does happen to be the case, it needs to be masks EVERYWHERE. Not just kids in schools.

Oh, I see—your question was pretextual for you getting to rant more.

Oh, I see - you want us to mask forever. I mean cases below the 50K mark? You basically want our 4 year olds to be masked without an end in sight.

We are talking about mcps and school aged kids. Very few are 4 and clearly you don’t care about their health or the fact they can get the new variant frequently. Nor do you care about others.

We need multiple layers of mitigation to get this under control and the do nothing crowd does not care about anyone but themselves. They will be the first to complain when their kids are sick or they have subs.

It IS under control. This is as good as it gets. If you find your home to be more Covid free than the general public, stay there.

No, its not under control and you need to get your head out of the sand and stop justifying your behavior and lack of concern.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

I started feeling mild symptoms on a Friday last spring. By Sunday night I felt almost fully recovered and honestly could have gone back to work on Monday. If it were any other year and any other virus probably would have. By Tuesday it would have been a no-brainer.

ES Teacher

You are lucky. I'm three weeks into covid (testing negative now) and still feeling miserable.

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Anonymous wrote:Threads like this in late July are so predictable. People calling for school closures and doom are an extremist minority who are detached from reality. It’s like a cult at this point.

Unfortunately there are ALOT of parents and public health official as like this in Montgomery County. Too many. And they have very loud voices. Our kids suffered for two years because of these ‘doom and gloom’ parents/public health officials.

I would hope that we know to ignore them by now, but I am not certain and could see schools having issues with closures due to quarantines, etc.

There’s no regional company on this any more. None of the other school region message boards even have a Covid thread on their first page. Fortunately, we now have a Superintendent that couldn’t care less what the hypochondriacs and shutins think.

It’s like you’re not even listening to what the actual problem is. The problem isn’t COVID itself… it’s that with sickness comes a staffing crisis. You cannot have open school buildings without anyone to run the schools. Or you do and you herd 100s of kids into auditoriums in the name of “education” bc many morons here think an open building automatically equals education. It doesn’t. If you actually cared about the education aspect, you’d realize this. Otherwise what you’re really saying is you’re just concerned with free babysitting and using “education” as the guise.

But how much is the staffing problem caused by required and extended isolation periods and how much is actual sickness?

Exactly! Remove the testing and extended isolation requirements.

+1 million

Remove the overly restrictive testing and extended isolation requirements. For everyone. Teacher, staff and students.

This. Anyone who thinks masking is the key to keeping schools open is delusional (literally, at this point in the pandemic).

There are efforts brewing to advocate for mandatory masking this Fall. If you disagree, please let Dr. McKnight and the BOE know ASAP. The prioritization of COVID to the exclusion of all else in MCPS needs to end.

If the CDC recommends it you know that MCPS will follow it.

True, although I'm not sure the CDC will recommend universal mask mandates in schools at this point.

Fauci was just on the news this week talking about masks.

I would hope the CDC doesn’t recommend mask mandates (especially for kids!), but I guess we’ll see.

I’m a teacher and parent. I don’t want a mask mandate. I hated teaching while wearing it.
However, I also don’t want major disruptions due to large numbers of kids or staff out. So, while I would not be thrilled by a mask mandate, I see it as the lesser inconvenience.

agree

It's so hard to know the best way to proceed. Maybe start with masks on and see how it goes?

I'm very COVID cautious (maybe anxious), but I have come to understand that people who deal with the public daily, like teachers, cashiers, and airport and airline staff, ideally should have a choice about whether to mask. I will wear a mask when I'm in a store, airport, or school to avoid spread, but I'm not going to expect workers to mask for 8 plus hours per day at this point in the pandemic.

I will respectfully point out that by your own logic, masks should be OPTIONAL.

You and your family are welcome to wear masks, if it makes you more comfortable! Nobody is telling you not to. And just like you deserve the choice, the rest of us also deserve the choice to let our kids go without masks.

So, no, we should not start with masks being required. We should start the school year with masks optional, just as we ended the school year last year.

I agree that they should be optional. I guess the piece that troubles me is that there's nothing built in to deal with disruptions.

I should also say that my personal views come from a parent of older children who don't mind wearing masks. Maybe it's because of the things they lost during the lockdowns, but they want to play in the big games and attend the significant events, so wearing a mask at school is worth it to them. They are old enough to decide that mask wearing to minimize disruptions to their day-to-day lives is worth it.

but that logic rests on the proposition that without masks, they would not be able to do those things. and that's not true at all. it's only "worth it" to them because they've been led (gaslighted, really) to BELIEVE that without masks, they won't be able to do those things...my kids' school didn't require masks at all last school year and guess what, they still attended sporting events. they had homecoming and prom. they played on their teams. they lived their lives.

Agree with this comment.

Whether my kids wear or a mask or not, they should be able to do all of these things. Without masks.

Families that njoy wearing masks can mask on until…. As long as they want! Nobody will stop them. It should be a choice. No good reason for a mandate.

You are missing the point. My kids don't want to miss out on these things, especially the really important ones, by getting COVID. One of the sports teams at my kids' school almost missed the playoffs because so many players had COVID at the same time. Several kids could not perform in the high school musical because they had COVID. My kids wants to do everything they can not to catch COVID and be on the field when it counts. Why is that so hard to understand unless you are the types that don't test when your kids have symptoms>

Again - the problem here is testing. It is not going away folks. Do we test for every other virus and stay home for 5 days? at this point it is a cold. The testing is the issue. Call me what you want. If my kids are sick with a fever they will stay home until 24 hours fever free. I am not testing them. Done. Again I ask....who exactly are we protecting by trying to mitigate the spread?

Kids are wearing masks out of fear of testing positive not because of what COVID will actually do to them and at this point we know that the masks won't even keep them from testing positive. So what are we doing folks?!

Yes, kids should wear masks and we should test. Kids with colds, flu's and covid should stay home. I'm tired of parents like you sending in their kids to school sick and spreading it because they cannot handle their kids at home for a few days. Why have kids if you refuse to care for them when they are sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just the fact that this is a thread makes me glad that I now live in VA. There is literally no one in my county entertaining the thought that there will be any shutdown of schools.

No one is entertaining it in MCPS. Someone started the tread to start drama.