If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?

[Anonymous]

The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm grateful the school system is acting responsibly to help stop the spread.

covid doesn't spread in schools.

Is this a joke? Oh yes it does! My sister’sPA school closed due to so many cases of Covid spreading through her school.

DP. Of course there will be cases in schools. Infection rates in schools tend to reflect community spread, but are generally lower than the level of spread in the surrounding community. You don't know if the cases were spreading through the school, or whether they were acquired outside of it.

They only appear lower if you don't do routine testing of students and staff. They are not actually lower.

[Anonymous]

Schools will be open in the Fall. By September, most adults in the US will have been vaccinated. Kids over 16 will have been vaccinated. Younger kids will be the only group not vaccinated. Getting vaccine approval for kids will be a much longer process.

The major obstacle to reopening so far has been due to reluctance on the part of teachers and some high risk families. The vaccine will enable both of these groups to feel better about returning. In fact, if teachers get vaccinated soon, kids should be able to return this spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No, OP, I'd be delighted. Kids won't have received the vaccine in September 2021, and can spread the virus just like adults.

If schools don't open now, then we're looking at reopening February, 2022 - a full year from now. There have been so many WTU schemes to delay and they keep moving the goalposts without clarifying what specific measures and metrics they want to reopen. Next it will be wait for the kids to get vaccinated in the Fall of 2021, then might as well wait for the immunity period, then oops it's the holidays, then let's just wait for any holiday spread to play out, and oh look now February 1, 2022 makes more sense. Then of course they'll say well, the pandemic is almost over, let's just wait for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm grateful the school system is acting responsibly to help stop the spread.

covid doesn't spread in schools.

Is this a joke? Oh yes it does! My sister’sPA school closed due to so many cases of Covid spreading through her school.

DP. Of course there will be cases in schools. Infection rates in schools tend to reflect community spread, but are generally lower than the level of spread in the surrounding community. You don't know if the cases were spreading through the school, or whether they were acquired outside of it.

They only appear lower if you don't do routine testing of students and staff. They are not actually lower.

No, there have been studies that have concluded they are lower based on random testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

Of course nobody expects the pandemic to "make a difference" in the US' attitude towards public education - what a nonsensical way to put it. What is shocking is the depth of the disregard for this communal good, not only by leaders but by the teachers themselves and by a good part of the parents and the general population, to the point where kids are being deprived of access to proper schooling for over a year.

And while the death toll of the pandemic is indeed tragic, it is not comparable to WWII, which killed mostly young, healthy people in the prime of their lives, while nearly half of US Covid deaths happened in nursing homes. Those deaths absolutely matter as well, but the life years lost are not nearly the same. The fact that this comparison keeps getting brought up unqualified, and questioning it is pretty much taboo (just watch me getting flamed for saying it), is just more evidence that we are a gerontocratic society that has no concept of valuing kids and their quality of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved for this year. But I can’t stay away for another year. Solo-parenting our kids has been very stressful as my spouse went back in person in June and I work full-time too, which I don’t think I could have managed on my own without school for a full school year. March- August were difficult enough without much help, my spouse was only remote April-June. Our kids miss their dad, I miss him as well, and living as quasi-nomads is trying, at best. But the children are happy, have been in school since late August, and we’ve only had two potential exposures since we started. One class shut for a week, the other, in a separate incident, for 3 days. There has been no community spread in the school.

For the curious-

No routine testing
Class size is max of 12
Children and teacher are masked all day inside (this is elementary school and I have a K student who remembers no different than wearing the mask at school; so age has not been an issue in remaining properly masked)
Classrooms were retrofitted with a bathroom so children never leave the classroom to go into common areas
They eat at their desks which are spaced 6 feet apart
Each classroom has an outdoor entrance so children don’t mingle between grades
Playground equipment is wiped down between class usage and each grade has a separate recess block

With no testing, you cannot know spread. Sounds terrible to take the kids from their dad.

Well, since no other children or staff have gotten sick after the potential exposure and subsequent quarantine period, I’m not entirely sure what you mean? By community, I’m referring to within the school. The Department of Health does contact tracing upon an exposure and issues instructions to those deemed “close contacts.”

My husband has come to see us or we’ve seen him at least a week a month and we are doing the best we can. We’ve been tested regularly for COVID in order to comply with travel restrictions between DC and our temporary home state. He works long hours and often weekends on a regular basis so all of the associated time, effort, and childcare for virtual school were on me. It’s one academic year and it’s what works best at this time for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

Of course nobody expects the pandemic to "make a difference" in the US' attitude towards public education - what a nonsensical way to put it. What is shocking is the depth of the disregard for this communal good, not only by leaders but by the teachers themselves and by a good part of the parents and the general population, to the point where kids are being deprived of access to proper schooling for over a year.

And while the death toll of the pandemic is indeed tragic, it is not comparable to WWII, which killed mostly young, healthy people in the prime of their lives, while nearly half of US Covid deaths happened in nursing homes. Those deaths absolutely matter as well, but the life years lost are not nearly the same. The fact that this comparison keeps getting brought up unqualified, and questioning it is pretty much taboo (just watch me getting flamed for saying it), is just more evidence that we are a gerontocratic society that has no concept of valuing kids and their quality of life.

You go, PP. Couldn't agree more.

[Anonymous]

Such an ignorant comment. You know very little about education, and if you say you do, then what you know is garbage. Students are getting an education via distance learning. Thanks to technology and resourceful teachers children are being educated. You will lose that argument every time. Schools might even open in the spring as soon as vaccines are rolled out and people stop gathering 'safely'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

Of course nobody expects the pandemic to "make a difference" in the US' attitude towards public education - what a nonsensical way to put it. What is shocking is the depth of the disregard for this communal good, not only by leaders but by the teachers themselves and by a good part of the parents and the general population, to the point where kids are being deprived of access to proper schooling for over a year.

And while the death toll of the pandemic is indeed tragic, it is not comparable to WWII, which killed mostly young, healthy people in the prime of their lives, while nearly half of US Covid deaths happened in nursing homes. Those deaths absolutely matter as well, but the life years lost are not nearly the same. The fact that this comparison keeps getting brought up unqualified, and questioning it is pretty much taboo (just watch me getting flamed for saying it), is just more evidence that we are a gerontocratic society that has no concept of valuing kids and their quality of life.

You go, PP. Couldn't agree more.

Given how the society is to blame and I generally agree, not sure why teachers are being blamed so much. Teachers have never gotten much respect for their work. They are not paid well but all of a sudden they are told to teach in person and increase their Covid risk. Makes no sense. They have more clout than grocery workers because they are not easy to replace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such an ignorant comment. You know very little about education, and if you say you do, then what you know is garbage. Students are getting an education via distance learning. Thanks to technology and resourceful teachers children are being educated. You will lose that argument every time. Schools might even open in the spring as soon as vaccines are rolled out and people stop gathering 'safely'.

Some kids are learning. Some kids are not. Some kids have developed mental health issues. Some kids never sign in to class and no one has laid eyes on them from the school in a while. Teachers are teaching, but learning is so much more than staring at a screen for our most vulnerable students (vulnerable meaning low SES, SPED, those suffering from mental health issues, unsafe home situations, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such an ignorant comment. You know very little about education, and if you say you do, then what you know is garbage. Students are getting an education via distance learning. Thanks to technology and resourceful teachers children are being educated. You will lose that argument every time. Schools might even open in the spring as soon as vaccines are rolled out and people stop gathering 'safely'.

So all the experts warning about the dire effects of distance learning based on rapidly emerging data are losing the argument?

DCUM posters say the darndest things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm grateful the school system is acting responsibly to help stop the spread.

covid doesn't spread in schools.

Again...can you Trumpers move to Zello or something. Why are uneducated boobs posting on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved for this year. But I can’t stay away for another year. Solo-parenting our kids has been very stressful as my spouse went back in person in June and I work full-time too, which I don’t think I could have managed on my own without school for a full school year. March- August were difficult enough without much help, my spouse was only remote April-June. Our kids miss their dad, I miss him as well, and living as quasi-nomads is trying, at best. But the children are happy, have been in school since late August, and we’ve only had two potential exposures since we started. One class shut for a week, the other, in a separate incident, for 3 days. There has been no community spread in the school.

For the curious-

No routine testing
Class size is max of 12
Children and teacher are masked all day inside (this is elementary school and I have a K student who remembers no different than wearing the mask at school; so age has not been an issue in remaining properly masked)
Classrooms were retrofitted with a bathroom so children never leave the classroom to go into common areas
They eat at their desks which are spaced 6 feet apart
Each classroom has an outdoor entrance so children don’t mingle between grades
Playground equipment is wiped down between class usage and each grade has a separate recess block

With no testing, you cannot know spread. Sounds terrible to take the kids from their dad.

Well, since no other children or staff have gotten sick after the potential exposure and subsequent quarantine period, I’m not entirely sure what you mean? By community, I’m referring to within the school. The Department of Health does contact tracing upon an exposure and issues instructions to those deemed “close contacts.”

My husband has come to see us or we’ve seen him at least a week a month and we are doing the best we can. We’ve been tested regularly for COVID in order to comply with travel restrictions between DC and our temporary home state. He works long hours and often weekends on a regular basis so all of the associated time, effort, and childcare for virtual school were on me. It’s one academic year and it’s what works best at this time for our family.

DP here. You're doing the right thing getting a real education for your children. It's just a shame that you have to leave DC to get it. Ignore the WTU troll you're responding to. They don't want to see any examples of schools successfully reopening because it undermines their squawking that it can't safely be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such an ignorant comment. You know very little about education, and if you say you do, then what you know is garbage. Students are getting an education via distance learning. Thanks to technology and resourceful teachers children are being educated. You will lose that argument every time. Schools might even open in the spring as soon as vaccines are rolled out and people stop gathering 'safely'.

Once again, if distance learning works so well, then let’s hire teaching staff that live in the hinterlands and pay them half as much. It’s just not fair to taxpayers to employ DL staff locally.