AEM - mental health discussion

[Anonymous]

I know one of the anti-opening people on AEM. Her kids need to stay virtual bc of other family members at risk. It all comes down to “virtual kids will get screwed out of opportunities” if school reopens and other kids go back. It’s not about teachers, not really.

[Anonymous]

I "know" a small number of the frequent AEM and APE posters from the community.

Various views on the ones I know personally, and others for whom I just see the posts.

The issues have become so charged. I would hesitate to post on either board for fear of offending someone.

We should all be working to get back to school. This should not be an issue of divisiveness!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was shocked to see such cold and uncaring comments from a school counselor. If my child were at his school, that discussion would have destroyed any faith I might have had in their counseling services.

On the other hand, the other school counselor who joined in with is a wonderful person and counselor (based on professional interactions outside of AEM), and I was glad she joined in to offer constructive comments.

I agree. I was disgusted by the Wakefield counselor’s comments.

Also, the complete blowing off of the parents especially by the women who are posting constantly that it’s unsafe to go to school. As a parent who’s dealt with a child having suicide ideation, I couldn’t believe their callousness.

I honestly can't deal with the parents who are scrutinizing mask policies as if the perfect policy will actually prevent middle schoolers from wearing it under their noses.

my 3 year old and his little classmates are able to wear masks all day at daycare. I see elementary schoolers running around on the playground wearing masks. Why do we keep thinking kids are incapable of wearing masks?

I don't think it is so much that we think kids can't wear masks as the fact that some parents will be mad if schools try to enforce the mask policy when their kid violates it and earns a consequence. This isn't a kid problem as much as it is a parent problem. There are a lot of parents who don't care if their kids don't follow the rules. It happened pre-Covid and the fear is that it will be worse post-Covid. Unfortunately the kids whose parents most want them in school also are the kids whose parents aren't able to handle them at home for obvious reasons.

This I agree with. My biggest concern as a parent is other parents. Some of you will let your kids do anything, and I am worried about what that means for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was shocked to see such cold and uncaring comments from a school counselor. If my child were at his school, that discussion would have destroyed any faith I might have had in their counseling services.

On the other hand, the other school counselor who joined in with is a wonderful person and counselor (based on professional interactions outside of AEM), and I was glad she joined in to offer constructive comments.

I agree. I was disgusted by the Wakefield counselor’s comments.

Also, the complete blowing off of the parents especially by the women who are posting constantly that it’s unsafe to go to school. As a parent who’s dealt with a child having suicide ideation, I couldn’t believe their callousness.

I honestly can't deal with the parents who are scrutinizing mask policies as if the perfect policy will actually prevent middle schoolers from wearing it under their noses.

my 3 year old and his little classmates are able to wear masks all day at daycare. I see elementary schoolers running around on the playground wearing masks. Why do we keep thinking kids are incapable of wearing masks?

I don't think it is so much that we think kids can't wear masks as the fact that some parents will be mad if schools try to enforce the mask policy when their kid violates it and earns a consequence. This isn't a kid problem as much as it is a parent problem. There are a lot of parents who don't care if their kids don't follow the rules. It happened pre-Covid and the fear is that it will be worse post-Covid. Unfortunately the kids whose parents most want them in school also are the kids whose parents aren't able to handle them at home for obvious reasons.

This I agree with. My biggest concern as a parent is other parents. Some of you will let your kids do anything, and I am worried about what that means for my kids.

Then stick with virtual. We are not trying to take that from you. We are perfectly happy to have virtual continue alongside hybrid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/25/teachers-are-vital-public-servants-time-them-start-acting-like-it/

Interesting. Somehow I have a feeling the author of this works from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/25/teachers-are-vital-public-servants-time-them-start-acting-like-it/

Interesting. Somehow I have a feeling the author of this works from home.

As a nurse, I consider teachers to be in the same essential personnel category as me. Same as our grocery store cashiers, doctors, trash collectors, etc. Most of us have kids, too, and are exposed every day for long periods of time. Time to get back to school, in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know one of the anti-opening people on AEM. Her kids need to stay virtual bc of other family members at risk. It all comes down to “virtual kids will get screwed out of opportunities” if school reopens and other kids go back. It’s not about teachers, not really.

Here's the thing: "family members at risk" is something that a lot of us share. My parents are local and my dad is over 70, has Parkinson's, heart disease, dementia, and is overweight. He would not fare well if he got Covid. However, after the first month or so of lockdown, my parents collectively decided that still being able to see grandkids was worth it to them, and so we see them even though the kids have been in a variety of care situations (camps, pods, babysitters) since, and would continue to do so if schools opened and our kids did hybrid. That's our risk calculus, which is individual to us. Others take a different approach.

Any excusing what stay-virtual parents are doing is imposing their risk calculus on me and that is unfair. I'm sorry about the FOMO aspect, I really am, but that's the choice. Extreme caution on Covid vs. a higher quality education. Just let us all make our own darn choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

From what I can tell, the opposing parents will grasp at anything and everything to force school buildings open.

And the fact that you put "dangers" in quotes, including in a discussion about indoor unmasked lunches, tells us all we need to know about you and your agenda. Glad nobody in power is listening to all of you.

Omg - it’s unmasked lunch /air purifiers lady 😂 She is convinced child setting foot in school = zombie apocalypse!
This is the first time I know exactly who a poster on DCUM is! This is the first time I have been able to identify a poster here just by something they wrote 😂

yes.. that's the one. She's constantly posting about unmasked lunches and air purifiers and obviously never wants any of us to ever step foot in a school again. EVER. Let her keep her family remote/DL and let the rest of us put some trust in the safety measures in place and weigh the risks to get our kids back in class.

That persistent parent helped to get air purifiers in our classrooms. If more people would stop complaining and take action, we could possibly get back in sooner.

Yeah! The empty for a year, never used classrooms have purified air! 😂

I have no doubt her kids go to activities on the regular, she gets together with family/friends in person and her kids do play dates

I also don’t even believe she cares about schools being closed. She has never posted any actual reason for her continued harping and I realized a couple
months ago that’s she keeps it up because she enjoys her feeling of being a “Covid influencer”. I think sh has received a lot of praise from the group admin and from others she sees as “important” like the woman with no kids who thinks she gave some impassioned speech at the school board about why schools should be closed. It’s Now become her thing to do. Caring about the actual schools and COVID long ago stopped being her priority. It seems this is a major source of self worth for her to get accolades on a FB group 🙁

She needs a new hobby and to stop interfering with the rest of us who want our kids to have a decent education. It's become very clear that APS will never have appropriate and sufficient measures according to her and others with the same agenda. And with Duran's message yesterday, I have serious fear people like this will win with keeping schools closed indefinitely.

I’m not the poster you speak of, but I think this is so rude. The reason the AEM poster talks about airflow is because she is familiar with science. She’s concerned about unmasked lunches because that scenario is just like restaurants- which are severely limited with capacity constraints to prevent spread. You really have nerve to say she’s interfering with your kids education when she’s actually taking concrete steps to move towards opening safely. Unlike you, who just sits here and insults everyone- basically throwing a temper tantrum without doing a damn thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know one of the anti-opening people on AEM. Her kids need to stay virtual bc of other family members at risk. It all comes down to “virtual kids will get screwed out of opportunities” if school reopens and other kids go back. It’s not about teachers, not really.

Here's the thing: "family members at risk" is something that a lot of us share. My parents are local and my dad is over 70, has Parkinson's, heart disease, dementia, and is overweight. He would not fare well if he got Covid. However, after the first month or so of lockdown, my parents collectively decided that still being able to see grandkids was worth it to them, and so we see them even though the kids have been in a variety of care situations (camps, pods, babysitters) since, and would continue to do so if schools opened and our kids did hybrid. That's our risk calculus, which is individual to us. Others take a different approach.

Any excusing what stay-virtual parents are doing is imposing their risk calculus on me and that is unfair. I'm sorry about the FOMO aspect, I really am, but that's the choice. Extreme caution on Covid vs. a higher quality education. Just let us all make our own darn choices.

100%. They have the choice to remain virtual, and they are trying to force their choice on everyone else. Misery loves company is not a good reason for everyone to be stuck in DL hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know one of the anti-opening people on AEM. Her kids need to stay virtual bc of other family members at risk. It all comes down to “virtual kids will get screwed out of opportunities” if school reopens and other kids go back. It’s not about teachers, not really.

Here's the thing: "family members at risk" is something that a lot of us share. My parents are local and my dad is over 70, has Parkinson's, heart disease, dementia, and is overweight. He would not fare well if he got Covid. However, after the first month or so of lockdown, my parents collectively decided that still being able to see grandkids was worth it to them, and so we see them even though the kids have been in a variety of care situations (camps, pods, babysitters) since, and would continue to do so if schools opened and our kids did hybrid. That's our risk calculus, which is individual to us. Others take a different approach.

Any excusing what stay-virtual parents are doing is imposing their risk calculus on me and that is unfair. I'm sorry about the FOMO aspect, I really am, but that's the choice. Extreme caution on Covid vs. a higher quality education. Just let us all make our own darn choices.

X1000. You put this into words so much better than I could. Absolutely this. Everyone should be able to make their own choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

From what I can tell, the opposing parents will grasp at anything and everything to force school buildings open.

And the fact that you put "dangers" in quotes, including in a discussion about indoor unmasked lunches, tells us all we need to know about you and your agenda. Glad nobody in power is listening to all of you.

Omg - it’s unmasked lunch /air purifiers lady 😂 She is convinced child setting foot in school = zombie apocalypse!
This is the first time I know exactly who a poster on DCUM is! This is the first time I have been able to identify a poster here just by something they wrote 😂

yes.. that's the one. She's constantly posting about unmasked lunches and air purifiers and obviously never wants any of us to ever step foot in a school again. EVER. Let her keep her family remote/DL and let the rest of us put some trust in the safety measures in place and weigh the risks to get our kids back in class.

That persistent parent helped to get air purifiers in our classrooms. If more people would stop complaining and take action, we could possibly get back in sooner.

Yeah! The empty for a year, never used classrooms have purified air! 😂

I have no doubt her kids go to activities on the regular, she gets together with family/friends in person and her kids do play dates

I also don’t even believe she cares about schools being closed. She has never posted any actual reason for her continued harping and I realized a couple
months ago that’s she keeps it up because she enjoys her feeling of being a “Covid influencer”. I think sh has received a lot of praise from the group admin and from others she sees as “important” like the woman with no kids who thinks she gave some impassioned speech at the school board about why schools should be closed. It’s Now become her thing to do. Caring about the actual schools and COVID long ago stopped being her priority. It seems this is a major source of self worth for her to get accolades on a FB group 🙁

She needs a new hobby and to stop interfering with the rest of us who want our kids to have a decent education. It's become very clear that APS will never have appropriate and sufficient measures according to her and others with the same agenda. And with Duran's message yesterday, I have serious fear people like this will win with keeping schools closed indefinitely.

I’m not the poster you speak of, but I think this is so rude. The reason the AEM poster talks about airflow is because she is familiar with science. She’s concerned about unmasked lunches because that scenario is just like restaurants- which are severely limited with capacity constraints to prevent spread. You really have nerve to say she’s interfering with your kids education when she’s actually taking concrete steps to move towards opening safely. Unlike you, who just sits here and insults everyone- basically throwing a temper tantrum without doing a damn thing.

Very well said. She's done FAR more to get our kids back in school than the teacher-hating complainers. Sit TF down if you don't have anything constructive to add.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the above. This person is making efforts to ensure student safety for YOUR KIDS when they go hybrid, while you make broad, inaccurate statements about the science based on newspaper headlines and otherwise bury your head in the sand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the above. This person is making efforts to ensure student safety for YOUR KIDS when they go hybrid, while you make broad, inaccurate statements about the science based on newspaper headlines and otherwise bury your head in the sand.

You mean the CDC and Scientists that claim it's safe to go back now with masks and social distancing? And various other data supporting a safe return without additional measures? Yes, the extra measures would be great, but not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the above. This person is making efforts to ensure student safety for YOUR KIDS when they go hybrid, while you make broad, inaccurate statements about the science based on newspaper headlines and otherwise bury your head in the sand.

You mean the CDC and Scientists that claim it's safe to go back now with masks and social distancing? And various other data supporting a safe return without additional measures? Yes, the extra measures would be great, but not necessary.

No CDC and scientists are not saying that for the areas with the highest risk (Arlington) and poor air quality (half of arlington schools). This is the problem with soundbites; people start using them as fact.

[Anonymous]

LOL, the AEM brigade is here.