Keep Healthy Kids in School - Don't Opt-In to APS' Surveillance Testing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

[Anonymous]

1 100% agree. I can't figure out WHY anyone is signing up for asymptomatic surveillance testing. I will test my kids if they are ill- but otherwise, I want them in school. I don't want them excluded b/c some vaccinated kid popped a positive on a surveillance test.

[Anonymous]

Thank for posting, OP; you reminded me to sign up for the testing anew since there is now a new vendor.

While I am among the first to flame APS for the year-long closure, I do think they are handling the testing / close contacts well. My DC was a close contact with a child diagnosed with COVID. DC is vaccinated. We tested DC on Day 5 post-exposure, per APS's instructions, and received a negative result. DC never missed a day of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL, love the totally bizarre anti-testing vibe. So, don't do something that it's completely optional and won't impact you in any way if someone else opts in? Why on earth anyone should care at all if a parent wants to opt in?

Let's do away with masks and quarantining even if positive while we're at it. Down with vax too, amiright?

It does affect other kids. See Georgetown Prep, which is going remote for non-sick, asymptomatic kids. If a kid is sick (with actual symptoms), they shouldn't go to school. But otherwise, they should be in school. Same mitigation method we've had with every virus pre-COVID.

COVID will be here forever. Does disrupting kids' education for something that will be here the rest of our lives make any sense, especially when such rules don't apply to adults? No.

And definitely down with masks b/c otherwise you're saying you want kids to mask forever since COVID will be here forever. The true anti-vaxxers are the people wanting kids to do these mitigation methods and vaccinated adults too - the message they're sending is "get vaccinated, but you'll never be able to act like vaccines work."

This is such a weird take. If a kid tests positive for covid, they are “sick” with covid whether they have symptoms or not, and can transmit the virus to other kids and teachers. You are acting like covid is only transmissible when the infected person has symptoms, but that isn’t so, and in fact the virus is most transmissible before an infected person shows symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

+1

Are OP's kids not vaccinated? That is messed up.

[Anonymous]

I signed up both of my kids for the testing program at the start of the school year. We’ve followed all of the requested protocols, and believed that APS would do their part, until given reason not to believe.

Both of my kids had symptoms that required staying home and testing at different points, and we were honest and followed the rules, believing that the work that they were missing in school would be fully accessible online and/or upon return to school, as promised. It wasn’t, for either. My junior missed two labs in an an AP science class, was not given an opportunity to make them up, and they tanked his grade until we went up the chain of command to get the situation rectified. That took over a month. Other classes also presented significant obstacles to accessing missed material and/or making up missed graded material.

My middle schooler missed a test while out awaiting test results and was given a sliver of time in an advisory period to make it up. She’s a fast and accurate test taker but could only complete half of the test. Another grade hit for a stellar student who did nothing wrong.

Both kids are fully vaccinated now, and we’re not signing up with the new testing vendor. If my kids are significantly symptomatic we’ll keep them home and accept the work makeup struggle. I’m not having them tested as long as they’re asymptomatic. APS shouldn’t make empty promises if it wants parents to choose to comply with this increasingly dubious program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

+1

Are OP's kids not vaccinated? That is messed up.

Only 20% of 5 to 11 year olds are getting vaccinated, and vaccinations in that age group has pretty much leveled off (the COVID paranoid ran out the first day Dear Sally was eligible). So getting your 5 to 11 year old vaccinated is actually pretty strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is such a weird take. If a kid tests positive for covid, they are “sick” with covid whether they have symptoms or not, and can transmit the virus to other kids and teachers. You are acting like covid is only transmissible when the infected person has symptoms, but that isn’t so, and in fact the virus is most transmissible before an infected person shows symptoms.

The weird take was changing the definition of case a year ago to include someone testing positive for virus particles in their nose, but not having any symptoms. Think if we did that every flu season!

As for the other kids and teachers, there are vaccines available. Teachers should be vaccinated anyway.

COVID is going to be here forever. You all act like it will be eradicated if we just mask and test harder - it won't! Kids' education cannot be disrupted any further.

[Anonymous]

The argument that "well we never took precautions for the flu" is such an interesting one to me. We, as a society, just decided NOT to care that 30,000 people a year died of a virus. It's not that we haven't had the tools to stop flu in previous years, just no one cared enough so it never had momentum.

I will agree that Covid is coming from the other perspective, where there is almost NO tolernace for it.

But as a decent and humane society moving forward, finding a way to navigate both viruses in a way that doesn't cost tens of thousands of people to die seems like the best way forward.

Treating Covid like the flu is not a good idea because we have in the past been VERY callous about how flu kills people. Perhaps everyone visiting a long term care facility or hospital should have to prove they are vaccinated for flu, or taken a negative flu test. Imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

+1

Are OP's kids not vaccinated? That is messed up.

Only 20% of 5 to 11 year olds are getting vaccinated, and vaccinations in that age group has pretty much leveled off (the COVID paranoid ran out the first day Dear Sally was eligible). So getting your 5 to 11 year old vaccinated is actually pretty strange.

False. Over 50% of 5-11 in Arlington have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

+1

Are OP's kids not vaccinated? That is messed up.

Only 20% of 5 to 11 year olds are getting vaccinated, and vaccinations in that age group has pretty much leveled off (the COVID paranoid ran out the first day Dear Sally was eligible). So getting your 5 to 11 year old vaccinated is actually pretty strange.

False. Over 50% of 5-11 in Arlington have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

That is correct, over 50% of the 5-11s in Arlington have gotten their first shot, which makes Arlington families "pretty strange" compared to the rest of the country. So...you're both correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please do not sign up for surveillance testing if you want APS healthy kids to stay in school. Surveillance testing is only a way to keep healthy kids out of school.

Look at the story of Georgetown Prep: 100% vaccinated school, and now going remote because of 30 cases. From what people have said online, not 1 person is sick whatsoever and it was caught via surveillance testing. These are 30 asymptomatic, vaccinated kids (i.e., not sick) causing school to shut down. Previously, a case of an illness required symptoms, but that all changed with COVID even though the flu virus spreads asymptomatically too.

This is a virus that is never going away. NEVER. No mainstream scientist is saying that COVID will be eradicated or that herd immunity is possible. Everyone will be repeatedly exposed to COVID in their lifetime. Do you want to lock healthy kids out of schools forever and continually disrupt their education when such rules don’t apply to adults?

Please don’t say:
• Kids under 5 can’t be vaccinated – they have less risk with COVID than the flu, and we never surveillance tested for the flu
• Protect immunocompromised – immunocompromised didn’t start existing in March 2020, they’ve always had issues with bad flu seasons and they should take the same type of precautions
• Protect grandma and grandpa – grandma and grandpa can get vaccinated for a year now; if they’re anti-vaxxers, it’s on them at this point

Most importantly, why are children bearing this burden? We don’t surveillance test anywhere else in society, and unvaccinated kids are at less mortality risk from COVID than vaccinated 40 year olds. And what is the cost of children’s education being constantly disrupted? We aren’t disrupting elderly people’s pickleball games, middle aged people’s dining or millennials' bar nights, all of which are much less important than the youngest generation getting educated.

As of Nov. 17th, FCPS only had 124 opt ins (of 179K students) for surveillance testing. We need to put up similarly minute numbers. Keep healthy kids in school – don’t opt into APS surveillance testing!

You sound familiar.....do I know you from Facebook or some place like Facebook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is such a weird take. If a kid tests positive for covid, they are “sick” with covid whether they have symptoms or not, and can transmit the virus to other kids and teachers. You are acting like covid is only transmissible when the infected person has symptoms, but that isn’t so, and in fact the virus is most transmissible before an infected person shows symptoms.

The weird take was changing the definition of case a year ago to include someone testing positive for virus particles in their nose, but not having any symptoms. Think if we did that every flu season!

As for the other kids and teachers, there are vaccines available. Teachers should be vaccinated anyway.

COVID is going to be here forever. You all act like it will be eradicated if we just mask and test harder - it won't! Kids' education cannot be disrupted any further.

You have completely ignored my point. Whether you have symptoms or not, if you test positive for covid, you have covid and you likely can transmit covid. You are saying that only symptomatic people should stay home and that other people who have actually tested positive for covid and may even be MORE infectious than symptomatic people should roam about freely. Because “covid forever” and therefore let’s not even try to stop the spread. That is messed up.

[Anonymous]

So, what you really mean is keep child COVID spreaders in school, right? People who are positive but don’t necessarily feel sick still need to stay home and quarantine. What are you people not understanding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We signed my fully vaccinated kid up for the new testing protocol as soon as we heard about it. Wishing you the best, OP!

Way for your vaccinated kid to be kept out of school for an asymptomatic virus (i.e., not sick)! And possibly locking other kids out of school. Clown.

In APS fully vaccinated kids who are close contacts don’t have to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. Unless you are also choosing not to vaccinate your kids, this doesn’t impact you. If you are choosing not to vaccinate, then it’s not my fault if they have to stay home. We are having our vaccinated child tested weekly.

“If you don’t look, you won’t find it” is the dumbest argument I have ever heard. Not testing is asking for it to spread further and impact more classrooms and families. The whole point of testing is to catch cases and exclude those kids.

If your kid is positive but doesn’t have symptoms that does not make them “healthy”. It makes you a selfish jerk who doesn’t care about other, more vulnerable kids and community members.

+1

Are OP's kids not vaccinated? That is messed up.

Only 20% of 5 to 11 year olds are getting vaccinated, and vaccinations in that age group has pretty much leveled off (the COVID paranoid ran out the first day Dear Sally was eligible). So getting your 5 to 11 year old vaccinated is actually pretty strange.

It's actually pretty strange to profess certainty but not know such a commonly known and easily checked point. But I'm glad you're the kind of person that "does your research" and shares it with the rest of us.