How to push back against people who want to close schools AGAIN

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to distribute packed lunches in classrooms. Let students eat in classrooms, in hallways, in playgrounds etc etc. We need to convert all outdoor spaces into areas that students can eat outdoors. Why cram everyone in the same cafeteria? Most students bring their own lunch.

You cram people into one large space because there are not unlimited people to supervise the kids. Teachers are entitled to their own lunch break.

It's pretty well established by now that lots of people on here do not, in fact, think that teachers deserve lunch breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools will close again though, at least for a little while. DCPS has no plan and took away things that could help mitigate spread. DC is currently a high transmission area, if we want full in person school they need to not just jump in the deep end when we cannot swim.

I highly doubt it. DCPS is pushing full steam ahead with a plan to have everything run as normal pre-pandemic, plus masks. Lunches are currently planned for indoors, at least at the high school I work at. Students will not be cohorted or socially distanced at all. It will be fine, and if not there might be quarantines, if DCPS even decides to do that. But they currently seem prepared to use the exception in the guidance that says if students are fully masked then they don't need to quarantine. And it appears from where I sit that they aren't going to look very closely at the correctly masked part.

If a white child dies we may be looking at quarantines, but until that time you can all rest easy because there is no political will on the art of anyone to close down schools from what I can tell. And there has been no organization from the union, so you don't need to worry about that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

Yep. It’s coming like a freight train.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Sure, I wish schools could be open. But that wishfulness doesn't override my common sense. Every school, every day will be a potential superspreader event.

When you detect positive cases (which will happen almost immediately), do you shut the school down for 1-2 weeks for quarantine? If so, why open at all? If not, then you ask everyone involved (kids, teachers, staff) to accept a totally different level of risk than has been communicated to date.

Teachers will die, who otherwise would have lived.

I understand that virtual school is terrible for many kids. It's a lose-lose with no easy answers. I wish more parents would step up and teach their kids at home. I wish more employers would step up and provide parents the time to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t in DCPS but I feel your pain. We are already seeing well off parents freaking out and requesting to quarantine everyone if there’s a case in a classroom. There is panic created and ultimately it may lead to school closures.
I feel like all these nervous people should put their kids in remote and shut up.

Yes. That’s what some of us are asking for and DCPS won’t let us. Would have been happy to shut up. Could have done 1 per grade for under 12s so that there isn’t simulcasting.

I am not keeping my kid home for 2 weeks because he may have been in contact. He is feeling fine - he goes to school. Asymptomatic people may not even spread. Anyone is free to keep their own child home if they want though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://fortune.com/2021/08/12/as-delta-infections-spiked-covid-cases-in-schools-actually-fell-a-lesson-from-england/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

As Delta infections spiked, COVID cases in schools actually fell—a lesson from England

And they didn't even mask! (Although they tested 2x / week)

DCPS is testing how many times a week again? Oh right, zero.

Oh did you skip the part where they didn’t mask? And we are?

Every kid and adult is wearing a correctly fitted KN94 or 95 all day? Because as we know, Old Navy cloth masks are worthless against Delta when in prolonged, undistanced indoor contact. But A for effort! Gold star.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I have heard that at one DC charter that already started back this week...25% of classes are now quarantining at home due to confirmed COVID cases in the room.

What a mess this will be. I think people have no idea how much of a disaster this fall will be.

What they need to do is stop quarantining everybody. If this will be a mess, it will be a mess of our own making.

You forgot the entire plot here. COVID is real. The mess of our own making is what would happen if we pretend it isn't in the classroom, and let it spread.

You forgot that the plot originally was that we need to protect the vulnerable and slow the spread so as not to overwhelm hospitals. Then the plot evolved to we need to wait for vaccines so the vulnerable can be protected. Nobody ever worried about kids until those things were achieved, and some people had now shifted their perspective to the idea that nobody must ever be put at risk of catching Covid, even if their risk of severe illness is close to zero (not zero).

Look, I’d rather my kids don’t catch Covid either. I don’t let them be unmasked in indoor public places. But schools need to function, and at some point we need to wonder if constant quarantine disruptions are worse than getting a probably mild case of Covid. Especially after they have already lost over a year of school, and given that it looks like the vaccines don’t prevent all infections either. Daily antigen testing of the whole exposed class, as was done in Britain, seems like a better approach.

I have a lot of compassion for you, your kids, and mine.

You misunderstand, or misrepresent for the sake of your point, how the plot has changed with respect to protecting children. The delta variant changed the plot. You make it sound like we are looking for excuses to disrupt normal life. That is not true. You sound like you're intentionally obscuring parts of the plot so you can pretend you can go back to an undisrupted normal life. That is not true either.

No, it really really has not changed the plot. There is NO EVIDENCE that delta causes more severe outcomes in kids. I’m so done humoring all you overly anxious control freaks who are physically incapable of properly evaluating risk.

Actually doctors in hard hit states are screaming right now that they are seeing much much sicker kids.

Please head over to the health forum and see what some doctors from Childrens in Atlanta are saying, and also read about the many instances of misrepresentation of the situation in the service of fear mongering by the media.

Mmkay. That’s ONE hospital out of the many reporting the same thing. Now debunk the others, one by one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Schools haven’t opened yet under Delta, you smug dumbass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

Yep. It’s coming like a freight train.

If they're going to do it again then Congress/Biden need to step in with Covid Relief for childcare. It expires in two weeks - just as we're hitting 200,000 cases a day and schools are going to shut down again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

Yep. It’s coming like a freight train.

If they're going to do it again then Congress/Biden need to step in with Covid Relief for childcare. It expires in two weeks - just as we're hitting 200,000 cases a day and schools are going to shut down again.

So childcare is ok but school is not? I see we’ve taken a time machine back to last year where people were cool with kids on laptops crammed into karate studios ie virtual learning hubs but not classrooms with teachers. Nice try. School is back in session this year. Thank god.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

Yep. It’s coming like a freight train.

If they're going to do it again then Congress/Biden need to step in with Covid Relief for childcare. It expires in two weeks - just as we're hitting 200,000 cases a day and schools are going to shut down again.

So childcare is ok but school is not? I see we’ve taken a time machine back to last year where people were cool with kids on laptops crammed into karate studios ie virtual learning hubs but not classrooms with teachers. Nice try. School is back in session this year. Thank god.

That's correct. Because they're going to be sending these kids home in waves throughout the semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Sure, I wish schools could be open. But that wishfulness doesn't override my common sense. Every school, every day will be a potential superspreader event.

When you detect positive cases (which will happen almost immediately), do you shut the school down for 1-2 weeks for quarantine? If so, why open at all? If not, then you ask everyone involved (kids, teachers, staff) to accept a totally different level of risk than has been communicated to date.

Teachers will die, who otherwise would have lived.

I understand that virtual school is terrible for many kids. It's a lose-lose with no easy answers. I wish more parents would step up and teach their kids at home. I wish more employers would step up and provide parents the time to do so.

Teachers at least have the option to be vaccinated. We need to stop focusing on teacher safety as they make up a very small number of people in schools and focus on student safety, especially for our under 12 (and those turning 12 soon that have to wait to be vaccinated).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan to reopen schools is foolish and it will collapse one outbreak, one ICU admission, one death at a time.

So you want schools to be virtual?

And, you know how many children in DC have died of Covid? Zero.

Histrionic.

Zero kids have died because DC was very safe in how they did things. DC will get hit with covid like every where else.

Yep. It’s coming like a freight train.

If they're going to do it again then Congress/Biden need to step in with Covid Relief for childcare. It expires in two weeks - just as we're hitting 200,000 cases a day and schools are going to shut down again.

Biden and Congress have done NOTHING since he's taken office. It is shameful that the south has gotten really bad and he hasn't done anything. If this is his leadership, we are all in trouble.