Smart Restart - Arlington Public Schools Needs to Require Masks through At Least this School Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a random tweet that practically no one will see.

I also think when our region is down to "blue" transmission and we know the majority of kids are vaccinated then masks should be optional.

Also, why are we orange when we are surrounded by yellow?

Those CDC Covid transmission maps are complete BS. They take the worst of two numbers (% positivity and cases/100K) and assign the worst color. They don't take into account hospitalizations, deaths or percent vaccinated.

+1000

The CDC has never explained where those tiers came from. Their anti-vax too as they don't take vaccination into account at all.

Rochelle Walensky is a disaster and needs to resign. She's driving Democrats off the cliff. First, she has the teachers union rewrite the CDC school guidance. The other day, she rejected offramps for kids in masks, saying we had cold and flu season coming too (when on earth did we ever mask for cold or flu season?!?). Last Friday, she claimed masks are 80% effective without any cites and implied masks were effective as vaccines, which is completely anti-vax.

Glad Youngkin will be jettisoning her crazy guidance.

Youngkin isn't going to follow CDC guidelines? Citation?

Where the hell have you been for the last three months? In response to your request for a citation, please see his press release on his website: https://www.youngkinforgovernor.com/post/glenn-releases-statement-on-northam-mcauliffe-mask-mandate-for-kids

[Anonymous]

“Give everyone the max time…”? Who determines what the “max time is”? I’d rather determine “sufficient” time. We don’t need through June to allow for sufficient time to get students vaccinated.

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Youngkin isn't going to follow CDC guidelines? Citation?

Where the hell have you been for the last three months? In response to your request for a citation, please see his press release on his website: https://www.youngkinforgovernor.com/post/glenn-releases-statement-on-northam-mcauliffe-mask-mandate-for-kids

Maybe Rochelle Walensky will approve removing masks in 2024? Those 7 year olds have plenty of more time for their development to be inhibited.

Walensky wouldn't let her vaccinated son go to summer camp last summer. She really knows how to undermine faith in vaccines with her Zero COVID safetyism. Is she part of Smart Restart too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Give everyone the max time…”? Who determines what the “max time is”? I’d rather determine “sufficient” time. We don’t need through June to allow for sufficient time to get students vaccinated.

ES Teacher

+1 I think the return from break should be mask optional. I just got my kid vaccinated Sunday. He’ll get the second dose right after Thanksgiving. Doses are available nights and weekends all over town.
(Another ES teacher who just got their booster and is ready to be mask free)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Give everyone the max time…”? Who determines what the “max time is”? I’d rather determine “sufficient” time. We don’t need through June to allow for sufficient time to get students vaccinated.

ES Teacher

+1 I think the return from break should be mask optional. I just got my kid vaccinated Sunday. He’ll get the second dose right after Thanksgiving. Doses are available nights and weekends all over town.
(Another ES teacher who just got their booster and is ready to be mask free)

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts?

Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 what I’m supposed to take from this graph? The tweet references red blue and green, but I’m seeing lines in pink, green, blue and brown/orange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 what I’m supposed to take from this graph? The tweet references red blue and green, but I’m seeing lines in pink, green, blue and brown/orange.

Never mind, I just clicked through to the original graphic and get it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

See you later then. Time for whiny teachers to go. You should have been booted last year when you refused to work. Bye bye!

[Anonymous]

Look at this analysis of 2 school systems in the same county. The mask optional school system has lower case rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

See you later then. Time for whiny teachers to go. You should have been booted last year when you refused to work. Bye bye!

We just had an election where we decided that kids matter more than employees. We'll pay the employees more, but schools exist to educate children, not for paychecks. And if you don't want a higher paycheck but want to inhibit children's development so you can "feel" safe (no matter what the science says), go get another job. The voters have spoken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We just had an election where we decided that kids matter more than employees. We'll pay the employees more, but schools exist to educate children, not for paychecks. And if you don't want a higher paycheck but want to inhibit children's development so you can "feel" safe (no matter what the science says), go get another job. The voters have spoken.

DP. What do you think Youngkin is going to do about this? You really think he’s going to impose a Florida-style ban on mask requirements for schools? I’m no Youngkin support but I know he’s smart enough to realize Virginia isn’t Floria and he’s going to fall out of favor fast if he tries to pull that kind of extremist nonsense and we get covid spikes that force schools to close. He’s going to straddle the line and say that while he doesn’t feel mask mandates are necessary, localities need flexibility to respond to the needs in the communities. The red parts of Virginia will continue to allow mask-free schools while the blue parts of Virginia will continue to require masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a random tweet that practically no one will see.

I also think when our region is down to "blue" transmission and we know the majority of kids are vaccinated then masks should be optional.

Also, why are we orange when we are surrounded by yellow?

Those CDC Covid transmission maps are complete BS. They take the worst of two numbers (% positivity and cases/100K) and assign the worst color. They don't take into account hospitalizations, deaths or percent vaccinated.

+1000

The CDC has never explained where those tiers came from. Their anti-vax too as they don't take vaccination into account at all.

Rochelle Walensky is a disaster and needs to resign. She's driving Democrats off the cliff. First, she has the teachers union rewrite the CDC school guidance. The other day, she rejected offramps for kids in masks, saying we had cold and flu season coming too (when on earth did we ever mask for cold or flu season?!?). Last Friday, she claimed masks are 80% effective without any cites and implied masks were effective as vaccines, which is completely anti-vax.

Glad Youngkin will be jettisoning her crazy guidance.

Does he have the authority to do that? Can he overrule local superintendents and school boards? I'm deeply unimpressed with how uncreative and risk adverse our school system has been (ACPS), but I thought local schools systems they had final word? We were closed for far longer than we should/could have been under Northam's guidance, so I'm not very optimistic that Youngkin can actually change anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

Funny because our school is completely opposite. If anything people are entrenching re masks. I think we could go from almost fully staffed to almost completely unstaffed in the blink of an eye if masks came off before students are vaccinated. There are a lot of very strong feelings about it obviously. (We also have ~100% compliance FWIW and we never really had any mask breaks.)