When do you think school will be back to normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any family that supports schools to be closed or on a rotating schedule in the fall is absolutely privileged. As one of the previous post already stated: The economic strain, the ever widening of the achievement gap, and the socioemotional damage cannot be overstated.

Only those (predominantly white middle class families) who are able to afford help, private tutors are pushing for this. Their privilege completely blinds them. These people don’t care about black, brown or any other underprivileged families without resources, and wants our kids to stay underprivileged while their kids get ahead with private help.

To those who continue to push for school closure due to Covid-19, look inside your hearts and souls when you go out protesting for BLM with your privileged children. You don’t really care about our lives, you just want to virtue signal that you are better than others and that you are not racists.

Thank you social justice warrior. I, however, am concerned about the HEALTH of those same groups. I don’t want their older family members to die. I don’t want our African American teachers to die. I don’t want kids to experience more trauma surrounding deaths of loved ones.

NP. I clicked on this to try to get an idea of the plans in MD and DC. I’m a teacher in VA and it is looking like schools will open two days per week, with teachers there every day. The other poster is correct. My children will be exponentially exposed and so will others in their class, because I’m trying to find different daycare situations for the days I need to go to work. These plans do not limit exposure. Now I’m researching other nearby schools to see if plans are in places outside of VA. I need to work and this isn’t safe for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Stokes seems to have a good plan that addresses all the complaints on this board. Opening up for kids with special needs, kids who are significantly behind grade level and kids who had a very hard time with distance learning. I think it’s a great plan. It prioritizes what’s important and let’s everyone else distance learn. I hope DCPS implements this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stokes seems to have a good plan that addresses all the complaints on this board. Opening up for kids with special needs, kids who are significantly behind grade level and kids who had a very hard time with distance learning. I think it’s a great plan. It prioritizes what’s important and let’s everyone else distance learn. I hope DCPS implements this.

No. Stokes has no in person learning even for kids where the entire point of going to school in SEL. Stokes assumes all parents have and can afford to have full time childcare in place indefinitely. Stokes says they won’t open until their is a vaccine or a cure. FWIW, there could never be a vaccine and viruses don’t have “cures,” so this is obviously written by scientifically illiterate morons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stokes seems to have a good plan that addresses all the complaints on this board. Opening up for kids with special needs, kids who are significantly behind grade level and kids who had a very hard time with distance learning. I think it’s a great plan. It prioritizes what’s important and let’s everyone else distance learn. I hope DCPS implements this.

No. Stokes has no in person learning even for kids where the entire point of going to school in SEL. Stokes assumes all parents have and can afford to have full time childcare in place indefinitely. Stokes says they won’t open until their is a vaccine or a cure. FWIW, there could never be a vaccine and viruses don’t have “cures,” so this is obviously written by scientifically illiterate morons.

So you don’t like it because the school is refusing to cater to you and your children. They are prioritizing the most vulnerable students. This is what this board has been screaming about for months. It’s a great plan especially if you really do care about the most vulnerable in society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stokes seems to have a good plan that addresses all the complaints on this board. Opening up for kids with special needs, kids who are significantly behind grade level and kids who had a very hard time with distance learning. I think it’s a great plan. It prioritizes what’s important and let’s everyone else distance learn. I hope DCPS implements this.

No. Stokes has no in person learning even for kids where the entire point of going to school in SEL. Stokes assumes all parents have and can afford to have full time childcare in place indefinitely. Stokes says they won’t open until their is a vaccine or a cure. FWIW, there could never be a vaccine and viruses don’t have “cures,” so this is obviously written by scientifically illiterate morons.

So you don’t like it because the school is refusing to cater to you and your children. They are prioritizing the most vulnerable students. This is what this board has been screaming about for months. It’s a great plan especially if you really do care about the most vulnerable in society.

No, the point is that even the at risk students are being supervised for remote learning. That’s better than nothing, but they aren’t going to interact with classmates or have SEL. They’re going to sit at computers mainly. I listened to the Stokes presentation.

[Anonymous]

Parents are looking out for the best interest of themselves and their children.
Schools are looking out for the best interest of the most vulnerable students and staff. It’s a different outlook. They don’t want to be the reason people get sick and die.

I don’t understand why that is so hard for people to see. We need to look out for the “we” not the “me”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents are looking out for the best interest of themselves and their children.
Schools are looking out for the best interest of the most vulnerable students and staff. It’s a different outlook. They don’t want to be the reason people get sick and die.

I don’t understand why that is so hard for people to see. We need to look out for the “we” not the “me”.

It isn't that simple. It's not about "we" or "me". Keeping schools closed also harms the community significantly. Arguably, it harms more people. Arguably, parents who "are looking out for the best interest of themselves and their children" are thinking in terms of "me". The same is true for the school administrators who "don't want to be the reason people get sick and die," i.e. are concerned about liability. That doesn't mean they aren't also genuinely concerned about the well-being of the community, but so are the people who think schools should open.

Ultimately, the question is whether you consider the harms from closed schools greater than the potential virus-related harms resulting from opening them, not whether you care about the community vs. yourself. Both choices entail risks for the community and we need to decide which risk is greater. It's a complicated problem with no simple answer.

[Anonymous]

Well stated. It's a bit of a no win situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite part of this thread is parents saying their kids won’t wear masks and we are talking a Janney parent. You should have been practicing this the last four months. My kid with autism and sensory issues will wear a mask because we practiced and worked at it. You say you want schools open, but are unwilling to do anything to help that along. Let me guess, you will be back at the gym Monday morning. Either teach your kid to wear a mask as a requirement for going out or homeschool.

PP Janney here. We are extremely strict about staying at home and mask wearing when out. We are also still leaning towards opting into the distance learning option. And perhaps you should consider that not every special needs child is exactly like yours. Mine is an ADHD child with Severe sensory processing disorder that mostly manifests as oral fixation seeking. He actually wants to wear masks and tries, but he literally does not have the capacity to keep a mask on And keep it out of his mouth. As for my still 3 year old who is entering prek4....please do find me one just turned 4 year old who will keep A mask on appropriately without touching for an entire school day? It doesn’t exist except in maybe the rare case. She wears one perfectly fine for brief outings (though she cant stop touching it), but it won’t stay on for a 6+ hour day.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP on the masks.

If your kid can’t wear them or comply with a mask policy, you are allowed to keep them home. No one will be required to go to in-person school until the pandemic is under control or a vaccine or effective treatment exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any family that supports schools to be closed or on a rotating schedule in the fall is absolutely privileged. As one of the previous post already stated: The economic strain, the ever widening of the achievement gap, and the socioemotional damage cannot be overstated.

Only those (predominantly white middle class families) who are able to afford help, private tutors are pushing for this. Their privilege completely blinds them. These people don’t care about black, brown or any other underprivileged families without resources, and wants our kids to stay underprivileged while their kids get ahead with private help.

To those who continue to push for school closure due to Covid-19, look inside your hearts and souls when you go out protesting for BLM with your privileged children. You don’t really care about our lives, you just want to virtue signal that you are better than others and that you are not racists.

Thank you social justice warrior. I, however, am concerned about the HEALTH of those same groups. I don’t want their older family members to die. I don’t want our African American teachers to die. I don’t want kids to experience more trauma surrounding deaths of loved ones.

The risk of dying for the average individual is small. The overall increase in deaths from opening schools, according to presently available data, would be minimal. The harms from keeping schools closed, both educational as well as economic and social, are an absolute certainty, and will be added to the already existing and likely, even if we keep schools closed, continuing trauma inflicted by the virus.

Can you find data from another country with our obesity and diabetes rate? No? Right, so your data from Germany and Sweden doesn’t relate here. Beijing just had to close schools again. If you don’t think that is going to happen here you are nuts.

The data that's relevant here is the data that indicates that kids do not spread the virus as much as adults. They haven't been able to contact-trace a single case of a kid infecting an adult - it's always the other way around. They also have not found increased infection rates among children in Sweden despite normally operating elementary schools. None of that has anything to do with the greater risk of the virus to a population of unhealthy adults. What matters with regard to opening schools is if we have evidence that KIDS are significant vectors, and so far that does not seem to be the case.

[Anonymous]

When the schools open I give it two weeks before they close again in mass. The teachers will give it to each other due to co-teaching, specials, taking the metro to work. Teachers are real people and many may not be making good decisions with regard to exposure (especially the younger ones). But sure open it up full swing, but just don’t be surprised when it’s closing back down.

[Anonymous]

I don't know what the best options are for everyone. I know I am scared to send my child to school. My child is in the higher risk category so she will likely be able to go to in person classes. I am worried about her being exposed to multiple service SPED providers. I am also worried about her falling more behind academically and socially. The computer based learning has not worked very well more my child. We are following lesson at home, trying to stay on target, doing the work books, playing games, making use of on-line resources and doing okay. But, sitting in front of a computer and listening to a teacher or having SPED services though a computer is mostly horrible. We would be doing a very different type of program if we had full control of a true Home School Program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the schools open I give it two weeks before they close again in mass. The teachers will give it to each other due to co-teaching, specials, taking the metro to work. Teachers are real people and many may not be making good decisions with regard to exposure (especially the younger ones). But sure open it up full swing, but just don’t be surprised when it’s closing back down.

I'm not convinced that teachers are making bad decisions around exposure, but I agree that schools are likely to close down soon after they open. Which makes it even harder for all of us to plan childcare for the year...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any family that supports schools to be closed or on a rotating schedule in the fall is absolutely privileged. As one of the previous post already stated: The economic strain, the ever widening of the achievement gap, and the socioemotional damage cannot be overstated.

Only those (predominantly white middle class families) who are able to afford help, private tutors are pushing for this. Their privilege completely blinds them. These people don’t care about black, brown or any other underprivileged families without resources, and wants our kids to stay underprivileged while their kids get ahead with private help.

To those who continue to push for school closure due to Covid-19, look inside your hearts and souls when you go out protesting for BLM with your privileged children. You don’t really care about our lives, you just want to virtue signal that you are better than others and that you are not racists.

Thank you social justice warrior. I, however, am concerned about the HEALTH of those same groups. I don’t want their older family members to die. I don’t want our African American teachers to die. I don’t want kids to experience more trauma surrounding deaths of loved ones.

Are you sure you are not talking about yourself? We don’t need your concern about our communities when black and brown people have the highest death rate due to poor socioeconomic status. You want to keep us behind while you home school your children. You don’t have to go in even if the school opens, but you also wish to forbid kids whose families have few resources to go. You want to assure that we can never match your level of privilege by playing the good liberal. Stop hiding behind “HEALTH” as if you care about anyone outside your suburb. It’s phony.