Organizing to lobby DC to allow larger class sizes under Phase 2/3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that you think you can sue a virus.

hahahahahaha.

Separate note- it sounds like people who are responding are looking out for their best interests and not the publics.

What does that even mean? I’m not sure how ridiculing your idea is equivalent to looking out for best interests of (I take it you are assuming) people with kids in private. That’s a lot of mental gymnastics to reach that conclusion.

What?

[Anonymous]

educatedc wrote:Per the ReOpen guidelines, schools, under each of Phase 2 and 3 must limit class sizes to 10, inclusive of the teachers, so really a max of 8 or 9. Restaurants and bars are allowed much more. Gatherings up to 250 are permitted. DC has chosen bars/restaurants over schools - no surprises that the school system is a failed system.

Schools cannot educate under these constraints - public schools are far worse off due to higher class sizes. The alternative is to sit your child alone at home on zoom - numerous studies have demonstrated this to be ineffective, and developmentally, lead to diminished social capacity.

DC Government needs to be heavily lobbied, and if that doesn't work, suing DC to revoke Mayor Bowser's order, which she has issued on shaky legal ground.

I am a lawyer, but more importantly, a parent. Anyone interested send an email to [e-mail] to get a group started.

Schools certainly can educate kids in smaller classes size. Heck, we shouldn't have let our schools get into these 20+ class rooms and 500-5,000 students in the building! Lack of small community base schools is a lot of the problem here. Like many other things covid is just shining like on the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Lobby away. Dcps is just following health guidelines set by DC Health.

[Anonymous]

I’m hoping that schools open up sooner as well, however, i don’t think OP’s comparison to bars/restaurants is valid. Patronage at a bar or restaurant is “voluntary”, whereas attendance of an while student to school is less so. You can decide that a restaurant is not worth the risk for your family and just bit attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lobby away. Dcps is just following health guidelines set by DC Health.

But DCPS and the teachers union aren't innovating like they could. Not at all. Come on, in the Nordic countries and Germany, elementary school classes are often taking place outside, e.g. in public parks. No way will the teachers unions permit that in this country. I bet you're going to see charter schools take the lead in keeping learning rolling in the fall, not DCPS. I see charter innovation during the pandemic pushing the District over the cliff into greater enrollment in charters than in DCPS for the first time, within the next two years. I'm not a charter booster, but with elementary school-age kids in DCPS facing 1-2 days a week of in-person learning in the fall, I might become one if local friends with kids in charters are getting considerably more in-person learning than we are (and I bet they will find a way).

[Anonymous]

If the CDC said large protests were okay ( and I understand and support why people protested), then having kids attend school should also be okay. Mass gatherings of thousands of people, even outside, were risky. But we tolerated the increased risk because the cause was good. We should adopt the same attitude for schools. Accept some risk because having kids attend schools is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the CDC said large protests were okay ( and I understand and support why people protested), then having kids attend school should also be okay. Mass gatherings of thousands of people, even outside, were risky. But we tolerated the increased risk because the cause was good. We should adopt the same attitude for schools. Accept some risk because having kids attend schools is important.

The thing is, a protest is not ruined because some people get sick two weeks later. If a school is not socially distant enough and the staff starts getting sick, the whole thing falls apart. It's not like there are enough substitute teachers to handle it.

[Anonymous]

Folks - these are the guidelines today. Based on the information (misinformation?) provided by the CDC at the time.

There is new information about COVID published from real researched studies (not Trump medicine) that:
1. Spread from asymptomatic individuals is minimal
2. Spread from touching stuff is minimal

So this is new information this week - think about what this means.

In my mind the 2 most important elements are:
1. check everyone daily before entering the building.
2. Wear masks to limit spread from airborne transmission

of course lots of handwashing.

I expect the numbers will change for how many children can be in a room safely given precautions and this will align with new guidance received from the CDC.

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain how the rising cases of the virus in this country lines up with the WHO article.

[Anonymous]

If you are going to compare things to schools (restaurants, protests...) at least compare things where people also regularly cough and sneeze on you, pick their nose then touch things, and chew on shared things without cleaning. Kids are gross. Comparing them to restaurants or protests isn’t the same. -teacher all for full time learning in the fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are going to compare things to schools (restaurants, protests...) at least compare things where people also regularly cough and sneeze on you, pick their nose then touch things, and chew on shared things without cleaning. Kids are gross. Comparing them to restaurants or protests isn’t the same. -teacher all for full time learning in the fall

Kids are also indoors. Protests are not. Apples to Oranges.

[Anonymous]

educatedc wrote:Per the ReOpen guidelines, schools, under each of Phase 2 and 3 must limit class sizes to 10, inclusive of the teachers, so really a max of 8 or 9. Restaurants and bars are allowed much more. Gatherings up to 250 are permitted. DC has chosen bars/restaurants over schools - no surprises that the school system is a failed system.

Schools cannot educate under these constraints - public schools are far worse off due to higher class sizes. The alternative is to sit your child alone at home on zoom - numerous studies have demonstrated this to be ineffective, and developmentally, lead to diminished social capacity.

DC Government needs to be heavily lobbied, and if that doesn't work, suing DC to revoke Mayor Bowser's order, which she has issued on shaky legal ground.

I am a lawyer, but more importantly, a parent. Anyone interested send an email to [e-mail] to get a group started.

You must be the kind of lawyer who never learned to make an argument. Rule #1: avoid overly dramatic statements, hyperbole and ad hominem attacks. No idea if what followed that childish outburst is meritorious. Because you lost all credibility.

[Anonymous]

For me 2/3 of a class is around 21 students.

The CDC just retracted their statement.

Just because you don't have a fever doesn't mean you do not have COVID. It can take days for symptoms to appear. You are contagious even BEFORE symptoms appear.

These are the things that give me pause.

[Anonymous]

I'd rather have smaller classes. During distance learning, my kids learned the most when they were in small groups with students at their same level, which was around 10 students per group for 3rd grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For me 2/3 of a class is around 21 students.

The CDC just retracted their statement.

Just because you don't have a fever doesn't mean you do not have COVID. It can take days for symptoms to appear. You are contagious even BEFORE symptoms appear.

These are the things that give me pause.

Which statement did they retract - so hard to keep on top of all of this.