Anonymous wrote:Because we don’t force cover the air holes of other peoples’ healthy children for years because board mommies have nothing better to do but to buy into media hysterics about covid and kids. You don’t get to control other people by violating their bodily autonomy anymore. For the record I had a baby during 2020 and I didn’t try and control the actions of strangers. Find a therapist.
Please surrender your child to social services. You are obviously drunk or high and have no understanding of basic anatomy. Your baby is in grave danger.
Anonymous wrote:If only MCPS would have reinstated masking after spring break, we could have avoided this mess. Sigh.
How would cases being 20% lower meaningfully change anything?
It wouldn't. Masks have achieved near mythic status on this board. The best thing about masks is that the battle line has been moved. If we still had mask mandates, the numbers would still be what they are and all the whining would be about shifting to virtual, "taking a pause", etc.
Anonymous wrote:If only MCPS would have reinstated masking after spring break, we could have avoided this mess. Sigh.
How would cases being 20% lower meaningfully change anything?
It wouldn't. Masks have achieved near mythic status on this board. The best thing about masks is that the battle line has been moved. If we still had mask mandates, the numbers would still be what they are and all the whining would be about shifting to virtual, "taking a pause", etc.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
I'm not sure if it's worth engaging. I've read that post over and over, and I truly don't understand what they're trying to say. Every time I think I got it, something else in it contradicts what I thought I understood.
Anonymous wrote:If only MCPS would have reinstated masking after spring break, we could have avoided this mess. Sigh.
Yes, exactly! Just like after winter break when the 100% masking prevented a surge in MoCo schools. Nobody got sick, no teachers were out, no bus drivers missed routes.
It worked so well last time, why didn't MoCo reinstate 100% masking again? Oh wait....
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?” [/quote
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
That’s probably the poster that thinks people shouldn’t have kids unless the can have a stay-at-home parent.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
That’s probably the poster that thinks people shouldn’t have kids unless the can have a stay-at-home parent.
Yep. School is just daycare, and we can’t stand to be around our kids so we send them. I thought this was a universal truth.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
That’s probably the poster that thinks people shouldn’t have kids unless the can have a stay-at-home parent.
Yep. School is just daycare, and we can’t stand to be around our kids so we send them. I thought this was a universal truth.
Too bad the SAHMs can't force policy for another year. Then MoCo would be rid of Covid.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
That’s probably the poster that thinks people shouldn’t have kids unless the can have a stay-at-home parent.
Yep. School is just daycare, and we can’t stand to be around our kids so we send them. I thought this was a universal truth.
Too bad the SAHMs can't force policy for another year. Then MoCo would be rid of Covid.
MoCo would be rid of covid with responsible behavior including masking at school. It has nothing to do with SAH. If you want your free day care to be safe you need to be part of the solution and not just the problem.
And, a working parent manages the virtual so good try.
Anonymous wrote:Because most people have already had it. Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now. Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.
Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant. It’s been over two years of disruption. It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks? Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.
Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.
Please show me evidence for your last statement.
Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings. The burden of proof is on the intervention.
OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help. And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking. If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.
I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before. It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing. Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.
Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here. There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates. If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now. Does it suck for some people? Yes. Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures? Also yes.
I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person. But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are.
Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong.
Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.
If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air. Poor kids. They see their parents maybe an hour or two a day and know they aren't really wanted.
This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously. You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.
FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together? Please? Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off). The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc. Jesus, people.
Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.
Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),
With the right supports, it absolutely can work.
Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day. Is that no longer a thing?
School is not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.
I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES). My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning. I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD. It was terrible for ES.
We did it in es and it was no big deal. Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher. We basically had to homeschool the entire year.
So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.
We did both. Your writing skills are pretty bad too.
DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”
Yes, it’s not a big deal. We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it. In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.
You stay at home? You think everybody can do this?
We made it work, and so could you if you tried.
Hmmm. Please let me know how a doctor (who, you know, sees patients) and a scientist in a lab (who, you know, needs to do experiments) can make this work. TIA for your infinite wisdom!