Maryland Recovery Plan for Education has been posted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if teachers are at school full time but their own children are only going to school half time who is going to watch them? I teach 5th grade and have a first and third grader. What am I supposed to do with them? My neighbor works for the city. Who is going to watch her kids for the weeks they are off? The half time plan makes no sense. Everyone should go back full time. It is so contagious it doesn't matter if kids sit 6 feet apart.

I assume teachers would be teaching remotely half time and in the classroom half time. Having the same teachers for both groups of kids would defeat the purpose, which would be avoiding sharing germs between the two halves.

Hopefully MCPS would prioritize placing kids on the same track as their parents.

Then you'll have to double the number of teachers.

Exactly. That’s not going to happen. The teachers will teach have the kids at a time, but will be teaching full-time on site. And the “off” weeks will be things like The Eureka and Benchmark videos and homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

Perhaps the reality of our situation hasn't fully sunk in. We all have to accept things which were previously unimaginable. Who knows, maybe covid will disappear this summer, never to reemerge? This is a situation no one has dealt with before. We're doing things ad hoc and there's no road map.

That’s true, but that also means that we will have to accept certain levels of risk that we would have otherwise found unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All high schools.
This is not the flu or a flu.
When 99% of students are vaccinated against something you realize that creates a protection for the few that can't get the vaccine, right?
No one has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Please stop listening to Trump.

There may be people who are listening to Trump, but I am not one of them.

Vaccine rates aren't 99% for anything, not even in Montgomery County.

You haven't been in any high schools lately.

You might think it's ok to keep schools closed until there's a vaccine. I don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All high schools.
This is not the flu or a flu.
When 99% of students are vaccinated against something you realize that creates a protection for the few that can't get the vaccine, right?
No one has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Please stop listening to Trump.

There may be people who are listening to Trump, but I am not one of them.

Vaccine rates aren't 99% for anything, not even in Montgomery County.

You haven't been in any high schools lately.

You might think it's ok to keep schools closed until there's a vaccine. I don't.

oops. Vaccine rates in Maryland are at 99%. Guess you just invalidated your whole post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

Perhaps the reality of our situation hasn't fully sunk in. We all have to accept things which were previously unimaginable. Who knows, maybe covid will disappear this summer, never to reemerge? This is a situation no one has dealt with before. We're doing things ad hoc and there's no road map.

That’s true, but that also means that we will have to accept certain levels of risk that we would have otherwise found unacceptable.

You don't have the option of accepting the risk for health care workers who have to take care of you when you get sick with COVID-19. That's why the Governor stepped in to stop you from putting others in danger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Do the parents work in a room with 500 other people? Do they walk in halls touching other people, crammed together? Do they all take bathroom breaks together? Do they sit in an office with 30 other people?
What part of staying away from other people during this pandemic have you missed? When did the education system in this country fail so terribly that some people can not follow what it means to have a pandemic?

You can [phone] all you want. The coronavirus doesn't give a damn. It's looking for hosts to plant itself and spread and the more people crammed together the happier it is. A happy coronavirus is tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of sick people for Maryland. Public schools aren't set up for un-vaccinated students, remember? Every single child right now is un-vaccinated.

I'm pretty sure that not all 2,000+ kids in my kid's high school all use the same bathroom at the same time.

Also, public schools absolutely are set up for unvaccinated students, every year during flu season.

Where do you work that a bell rings and people all rush for the bathrooms at the same time?

Vaccines are required of students attending public school. This is not the flu. Please stop watching Trump press conferences. This is not the flu or a flu.

What high school do you know of where all of the students rush for the bathrooms at the same time?

Agreed that covid-19 is not the flu. But it's silly to say that schools aren't set up for unvaccinated students, because they are. For example, students who did not get the flu vaccine, which is not required. Or students with infectious diseases that don't have vaccines, which there are many of.

Many high schools limit students to using the bathroom during passing periods. No they aren't all using the bathroom at the same time, but you can easily have more students using the bathroom than it can handle with social distancing.

I am sure there are other work settings with a similar dynamic, but some of those are the settings like meat packaging plants, where the virus has spread rapidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

When did he say this? Do you have a link? I really hope you are correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Many high schools limit students to using the bathroom during passing periods. No they aren't all using the bathroom at the same time, but you can easily have more students using the bathroom than it can handle with social distancing.

I am sure there are other work settings with a similar dynamic, but some of those are the settings like meat packaging plants, where the virus has spread rapidly.

Which high schools in MCPS say that you're only allowed to use the bathroom between classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All high schools.
This is not the flu or a flu.
When 99% of students are vaccinated against something you realize that creates a protection for the few that can't get the vaccine, right?
No one has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Please stop listening to Trump.

There may be people who are listening to Trump, but I am not one of them.

Vaccine rates aren't 99% for anything, not even in Montgomery County.

You haven't been in any high schools lately.

You might think it's ok to keep schools closed until there's a vaccine. I don't.

oops. Vaccine rates in Maryland are at 99%. Guess you just invalidated your whole post.

Huh? Vaccine rates in Maryland are at 99% for what, for whom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sooner or later the majority of population will be exposed, most probably before vaccine. As long as people are not dying because of overwhelmed hospitals like in Italy, there is little to gain, but a lot to lose by shutting down everything, schools included.

This. Moreover I'm sure better treatment alternatives will be there by fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

Perhaps the reality of our situation hasn't fully sunk in. We all have to accept things which were previously unimaginable. Who knows, maybe covid will disappear this summer, never to reemerge? This is a situation no one has dealt with before. We're doing things ad hoc and there's no road map.

That’s true, but that also means that we will have to accept certain levels of risk that we would have otherwise found unacceptable.

You don't have the option of accepting the risk for health care workers who have to take care of you when you get sick with COVID-19. That's why the Governor stepped in to stop you from putting others in danger.

The governor issued the stay-at-home order to flatten the curve. The curve has been flattened, and he is now talking about lifting the stay-at-home order. If you're concerned about the risk for health care workers, talk about that, not keeping schools closed - potentially for years. I, personally, think that schools are more important than golf courses and hair salons. I think that schools are an essential government activity. But you're allowed to have your own opinion about that, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

Perhaps the reality of our situation hasn't fully sunk in. We all have to accept things which were previously unimaginable. Who knows, maybe covid will disappear this summer, never to reemerge? This is a situation no one has dealt with before. We're doing things ad hoc and there's no road map.

That’s true, but that also means that we will have to accept certain levels of risk that we would have otherwise found unacceptable.

You don't have the option of accepting the risk for health care workers who have to take care of you when you get sick with COVID-19. That's why the Governor stepped in to stop you from putting others in danger.

The governor issued the stay-at-home order to flatten the curve. The curve has been flattened, and he is now talking about lifting the stay-at-home order. If you're concerned about the risk for health care workers, talk about that, not keeping schools closed - potentially for years. I, personally, think that schools are more important than golf courses and hair salons. I think that schools are an essential government activity. But you're allowed to have your own opinion about that, of course.

The curve has not been flattened yet. Decisions are not being made based on what you think is more important or on your opinion. Decisions are being made based on what is the safest possible activity. Schools are one of the least safest activities. You can say they are important all you want, but that doesn't make them safe to open as they existed before. The word essential is not going to re-open schools as they were on March 1st.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, Smith literally said "we can't just keep kids out of school for 6 months and think that's ok." They will be back in the fall.

Perhaps the reality of our situation hasn't fully sunk in. We all have to accept things which were previously unimaginable. Who knows, maybe covid will disappear this summer, never to reemerge? This is a situation no one has dealt with before. We're doing things ad hoc and there's no road map.

That’s true, but that also means that we will have to accept certain levels of risk that we would have otherwise found unacceptable.

You don't have the option of accepting the risk for health care workers who have to take care of you when you get sick with COVID-19. That's why the Governor stepped in to stop you from putting others in danger.

The governor issued the stay-at-home order to flatten the curve. The curve has been flattened, and he is now talking about lifting the stay-at-home order. If you're concerned about the risk for health care workers, talk about that, not keeping schools closed - potentially for years. I, personally, think that schools are more important than golf courses and hair salons. I think that schools are an essential government activity. But you're allowed to have your own opinion about that, of course.

The curve has not been flattened yet. Decisions are not being made based on what you think is more important or on your opinion. Decisions are being made based on what is the safest possible activity. Schools are one of the least safest activities. You can say they are important all you want, but that doesn't make them safe to open as they existed before. The word essential is not going to re-open schools as they were on March 1st.

1. curve has been flattened
2. there is no evidence that schools are "the least safest activities" in fact studies say the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sooner or later the majority of population will be exposed, most probably before vaccine. As long as people are not dying because of overwhelmed hospitals like in Italy, there is little to gain, but a lot to lose by shutting down everything, schools included.

This. Moreover I'm sure better treatment alternatives will be there by fall.

I think that's basically inevitable, just because there will be much more knowledge of the disease, and experience with treatments, by fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The curve has not been flattened yet. Decisions are not being made based on what you think is more important or on your opinion. Decisions are being made based on what is the safest possible activity. Schools are one of the least safest activities. You can say they are important all you want, but that doesn't make them safe to open as they existed before. The word essential is not going to re-open schools as they were on March 1st.

The curve has been flattened, decisions are not being made based on what is the safest possible activity, and there is no evidence that schools are one of the least safe activities.