Yellow and green school parents

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What can be done to stop pro-virtual parents from faking positive covid tests to shut down the yellow and green schools? Seems like we are screwed! Although green schools will turn red eventually but some parents can speed that up by fake positives

Whoa. What?! That is some serious conspiracy theory stuff. I and many other parents are very concerned about covid transmission post holidays, but people have only talked about keeping their own kids home or hoping for a few virtual days out or precaution. The whole idea that someone would fake a positive to close schools is ludicrous . No one wants to close schools. That is crazy talk.

I am more concerned that families will under report because they don't want to have to get a dr to sign off on reeentry.

This is my main concern as well. I am not a fan of virtual learning but as a teacher at a Title 1 school, we have a low number of positive COVID cases but we also have very few kids that are getting tested. If you don’t test for COVID, no one has it, right? It is so frustrating because the step one of the obvious answer is an opt-OUT form parents need to fill out if they don’t want their child tested. For various reasons, many of my school’s parents haven’t filled out the form (very hardworking people but also unaware, too busy, one more thing to have to do, don’t really understand, etc.). For in-person school, there should be weekly testing (not random samples of only kids who opted in). Step two is to switch to virtual learning for all schools for two weeks. This would allow parents to somewhat plan and not be worried about needing to find arrangements at the last minute.

At this point, we have more teachers out - either with COVID, or they are taking leave because their child has COVID (key takeaway is *they got tested*). We have had ZERO classes eat lunch outside so far this year, and have kids eating breakfast in classrooms (with windows that won’t open and very poor ventilation) and classes that rotate eating lunch in the classrooms. Not to mention that classes are combined when there are no subs (very frequently) and the kids that go to Bar T are coming from all different classes and grade levels and eating snack together. Impossible to contract trace. As a teacher and a parent, I am so disappointed in the way MCPS has chosen to handle this situation. The extra vacation for central office and admin is nice for them but a slap in the face to employees like para educators who, with the exception of Christmas Eve and NYE, are not paid for time time off during Winter Break. And paraeducators are always the first ones pulled to cover classes last minute, cover lunch duty, recess, etc. Morale is SO DOWN this year and I am nervous even thinking about next year knowing the number of teachers we will lose at the end of this year.

Weekly testing of all 180,000 students and staff is about 2.5 times the PCR testing capacity of the public and private labs in the county. That's not really practical without a lot of time to set up resources and a lot of money.

Rapid tests are slightly more plausible, but there's no staff to administer them at school, and no plausible way to set that up. Remember, MCPS hasn't even been able to do test-to-stay due to those challenges.

If you're serious about trying to identify ways to keep schools open, you need to ground your ideas in reality.

MCPS administrators should have been working during winter break to coordinate with DHHS for the need of more tests - PCR and rapid tests. DCPS came up with a workable plan to a test to stay program. Couldn’t MCPS ramp up testing if DHHS would set up drive through testing at county high schools to get everyone tested?

My child had a close contact before winter break. There was no testing in school even though I gave permission for testing. Teachers and para educators are regularly exposed but again, there’s no testing. It’s a MCPS administrative and a DHHS failure. The County Council should have an emergency meeting to improve coordination and transition testing to school populations.

DCPS did a one-time distribution of at-home rapid antigen tests that parents were to administer and report. It’s unclear what they will do with students that show up without a test.

With more time, MCPS could have done something similar to that.

But you seem to be imagining weekly PCR tests, or perhaps just PCR tests to true. That is wildly impractical. We could stop testing everyone else in the county and it would still take us 2.5 weeks to get through everyone in MCPS. And I don’t mean just stop testing everyone else just at county-run sites- I mean stop testing everyone else at private clinics and hospitals too.

It's a huge waste of time and resources to insist on testing to return and it's likely to be a huge mess whenever DCPS actually reopens. Are principals going to stand in doorways of schools and check each individual's test results? For a HS with 2k+ kids? In MoCo, it would have be done at each and every bus stop - how do you propose to implement that? And all that tells you is that someone tested negative yesterday. What happens when the MS & HS kids go to Starbucks at lunch or after school, or any other myriad opportunities people have to be exposed to the virus. Are you going to test 165k+ kids every single day? All to track exposure to an illness that MOST have been vaccinated against and that poses a relatively small risk to MOST kids?

And if we do this for schools, why not every other facility? Why don't we shut down society entirely until every single human being can be proven to be Covid free every single day?

Again, this shows that we are forcing kids (who are least at risk) to bear the greatest burden of sacrifice and testing when it comes to Covid. That is so wrong and parents should be pissed.

OP here- agree with both PPs. And no I am not mentally unstable i just have lost faith in humanity. MCpS screwing us over and over again. With the vaccinations and omicron being milder it makes no sense to have a color coded system for in person return to school. This system based on self reporting can be manipulated by anyone. Yes i have no faith in mcps. But i am not insane. Think what you want.

You're not insane. I agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that either way, teachers need to report in person. Is that true? Including for the first, asynchronous day or not? If so, then teachers at least have little incentive to go virtual, other than perhaps fewer bus or other duties.

Yes, teachers and staff still report to school if the school moves into virtual learning.

[Anonymous]

We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

It doesn’t cause those in the majority of cases. Quit fearmongering. You’ve been living under a rock so you can’t possibly have Covid. So, what’s your excuse for your lack of cognitive thinking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the heck? Faking positives? This is some extreme thinking, and it’s not healthy or based in reality.

But it is plausible which is frightening

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the heck? Faking positives? This is some extreme thinking, and it’s not healthy or based in reality.

But it is plausible which is frightening

Anything is plausible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

It doesn’t cause those in the majority of cases. Quit fearmongering. You’ve been living under a rock so you can’t possibly have Covid. So, what’s your excuse for your lack of cognitive thinking?

This. Fresh off the presses, really.

"Through the series of tests, the researchers discovered that people who felt higher rates of fear or worry related to the pandemic did not perform as highly on simple cognitive tasks, and were more likely to experience “reduced information processing speed, ability to retain information needed to perform tasks, and heightened sensitivity to the odds they were given when taking risks.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fear-and-worry-over-covid-can-lead-to-impaired-cognitive-function-study-finds/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

It doesn’t cause those in the majority of cases. Quit fearmongering. You’ve been living under a rock so you can’t possibly have Covid. So, what’s your excuse for your lack of cognitive thinking?

This. Fresh off the presses, really.

"Through the series of tests, the researchers discovered that people who felt higher rates of fear or worry related to the pandemic did not perform as highly on simple cognitive tasks, and were more likely to experience “reduced information processing speed, ability to retain information needed to perform tasks, and heightened sensitivity to the odds they were given when taking risks.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fear-and-worry-over-covid-can-lead-to-impaired-cognitive-function-study-finds/

Isn't that the alt-right Israel publication where they hang out with the fundies and the Saudis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

It doesn’t cause those in the majority of cases. Quit fearmongering. You’ve been living under a rock so you can’t possibly have Covid. So, what’s your excuse for your lack of cognitive thinking?

This. Fresh off the presses, really.

"Through the series of tests, the researchers discovered that people who felt higher rates of fear or worry related to the pandemic did not perform as highly on simple cognitive tasks, and were more likely to experience “reduced information processing speed, ability to retain information needed to perform tasks, and heightened sensitivity to the odds they were given when taking risks.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fear-and-worry-over-covid-can-lead-to-impaired-cognitive-function-study-finds/

Isn't that the alt-right Israel publication where they hang out with the fundies and the Saudis?

Nm: answered my own question. Probably not.

Still, an unsigned editorial is not the groundbreaking evidence you seem to think it is.

But I get it, we are playing "gotcha."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

It doesn’t cause those in the majority of cases. Quit fearmongering. You’ve been living under a rock so you can’t possibly have Covid. So, what’s your excuse for your lack of cognitive thinking?

This. Fresh off the presses, really.

"Through the series of tests, the researchers discovered that people who felt higher rates of fear or worry related to the pandemic did not perform as highly on simple cognitive tasks, and were more likely to experience “reduced information processing speed, ability to retain information needed to perform tasks, and heightened sensitivity to the odds they were given when taking risks.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fear-and-worry-over-covid-can-lead-to-impaired-cognitive-function-study-finds/

Isn't that the alt-right Israel publication where they hang out with the fundies and the Saudis?

Nm: answered my own question. Probably not.

Still, an unsigned editorial is not the groundbreaking evidence you seem to think it is.

But I get it, we are playing "gotcha."

"Supporting this view, we found that higher levels of pandemic-related worry predicted impairments in proactive cognitive control and in information processing speed but not in task-switching ability."

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0260061

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've normalized getting an illness that causes blood clots and organ damage. Most of you have to do that because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourselves that your insistence on "getting back to normal" has caused a lot of suffering and death.

Plus, your family has had it like three times at least already, so it's possible you're just cognitively impaired.

The thing is it's not normal or necessary.

This. Even if kids have relatively mild systems, they can transmit to those with greater risk. Also, hospitals may fill. It's not just a bad cold.