All schools should offer an all-virtual option

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Articles specifically on delta in children:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/990789.page

An MD"s thread specifically on delta in children:

How is Delta doing in DC? Is Childrens filled? No? Then what’s the relevance?

Stop trying to ruin school for everyone else.

Hypothetically, would you evacuate your beachfront Florida home if meteorologists told you a hurricane was coming but you couldn't see it out the window? Sounds like not.

Oh ffs. That is a totally inapt analogy. This is more like “would you bulldoze your neighbors house because you heard their may be strong winds with a 0.01% percentage of falling on your house”?

I know you feel we want to bulldoze your figurative house - you've behaved accordingly this past week. We just want to learn from home until the vaccine is ready or the virus numbers are low enough to be safe. We don't even want your kid to do that. Your kid go to school, go. No bulldozing.

YOU may homeschool. Stop demanding everyone cater to you.

After a year of DL, hybrid, concurrent, asymptomatic testing, smaller cohorts, it isn't ethical to tell families "Yeah, we're not doing any of that anymore, no version of it. We know the risks are far greater now, but we can't afford to mitigate them. So send your kids in with us or figure something out on your own." DCPS has a responsibility towards all of its students, including those whose families want their children vaccinated before going into a full classroom with delta circulating.

So much this.

Agree 100%. The delta virus is more contagious and now it is also looking to be more virulent. And hospitals are seeing more serious pediatric cases. The only reason that this is not being talked about is that no politician wants to face these facts, and no public health official wants to receive death threats from angry parents. Many schools in DCPS recognized that they could not possibly open up safely last year for 100% of their students 100% of the time, whether that was due to overcrowding or other issues. Now we are supposed to celebrate 100% re-opening for everyone 5 days a week. But the virus is more dangerous and it is more contagious, and nothing has changed about schools' ability to open safely at 100% capacity. And, yes, they have dropped mitigation measures. There is no longer random asymptomatic testing. There is no longer quarantining close contacts (based on the CDC fiction that every child will be "properly wearing a well-fitted mask.") There is no longer cohorting.
And distancing is encouraged only "when possible" (which, as previously mentioned, it is not at many schools).

As part of the pro-vax campaign, public health officials are basically now screaming from the roof tops that anyone left unvaccinated against covid will eventually catch the delta variant. Of course this also applies to unvaccinated children. I'm not sure why it is so much to ask to give parents a virtual option until their kids can be vaxed. Distance learning worked very well for both of our children last year. Not only did they not fall behind academically, they achieved MORE than they had in previous years because they had so much down time when we could add supplementary material. If your child's needs to be in-school outweigh their health concerns, then that is a fine choice. But why should we be forced into a dangerous situation when we have proven that we can excel at home, and the pediatric vaccine is on its way? Then, of course, kids should all be back at school.

It is not looking like it is more virulent for kids.

You notice that you are developing in your mind a large conspiracy about pediatricians and public health experts, yes?

Parents have been given a virtual option. You have other options.

Actually PP is correct. It is looking more virulent.

And asking parents to lose their spot in a school system that is built on the luck of the lottery is a ridiculous position to take.

I mean, the school could say "go ahead and homeschool for the semester and we will hold your spot." Which is far easier on resources than every single school expending scarce resources on virtual options for a small percentage of parents. The OP doesn't suggest this, though, which is odd. And the OP doesn't say what happened when they asked their school about their concerns. Again...why?

Otherwise, seriously, the poster is putting their lottery spot above their kids' lives (at least in their own mind). It seems a bit disingenuous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

zero covid deaths of kids in DC and MoCo. the understanding of covid and kids has been really pretty stable all along - taking into account, of course, the quickly changing landscape. there are certainly still some questions related to Delta, but the underlying assessment seems to be true especially wrt schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

Impressive strawmanning!

[Anonymous]

None of what we are hearing from public health officials about unvaccinated kids adds up. On one hand, I, as a vaccinated parent, am now supposed to mask up when I pop into the 7-11 to avoid the small chance that I contract the virus there and bring the virus home to my kid. On the other hand, it is completely fine for my unvaccinated 11-year-old have lunch in the cafeteria, unmasked, with the entire 6th grade class, every day. Are the kids at risk or not? The messaging is completely unclear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

zero covid deaths of kids in DC and MoCo. the understanding of covid and kids has been really pretty stable all along - taking into account, of course, the quickly changing landscape. there are certainly still some questions related to Delta, but the underlying assessment seems to be true especially wrt schools.

Four dead kids in Maryland. And counting. How many dead kids are acceptable to you?

[Anonymous]

Reposting from deep in a thread in the Fairfax schools forum, but straight out of the Onion:
Families who attended Cobb elementary school open house test positive for COVID-19 (GA)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/families-who-atte...19/6ME5XNJXLFCLVM7OTCPQSI5NYY/

“We are super excited to get this school year started! Following our wonderful Sneak a Peek on Thursday, we’ve been notified that several families have positive cases of Covid and attended our event,” the letter stated. “Since this was a fluid event with people mingling throughout the building, we thought it best to send a low risk letter to all families.”

As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

“Keep the masks optional. Those parents who have concerns about their student, absolutely feel free to wear a mask,” parent Amy Buchanan said.

“Cobb County Schools prides itself on being a school system of excellence. What is excellent about putting children in a situation where they can be potentially unsafe?” parent Courtney Johnson said.

So I propose we identify as Amys or Courtneys, for simplicity. I am a Courtney.
This is to emphasize that there are two sides regarding the upcoming school year around the country... and also that Amys are neither very smart nor very nice people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

zero covid deaths of kids in DC and MoCo. the understanding of covid and kids has been really pretty stable all along - taking into account, of course, the quickly changing landscape. there are certainly still some questions related to Delta, but the underlying assessment seems to be true especially wrt schools.

Four dead kids in Maryland. And counting. How many dead kids are acceptable to you?

Are you asking in balance with disrupting every kid's education for a THIRD school year? The risks would have to be very, very high. We don't shut schools for every risk to kid's health. This is where the car accident analogy comes into play - to elicit our actual risk analysis in settings less charged by cognitive bias than covid. So no, I would not agree to closing schools in DC because 4 kids died in MD over 18 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reposting from deep in a thread in the Fairfax schools forum, but straight out of the Onion:
Families who attended Cobb elementary school open house test positive for COVID-19 (GA)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/families-who-atte...19/6ME5XNJXLFCLVM7OTCPQSI5NYY/

“We are super excited to get this school year started! Following our wonderful Sneak a Peek on Thursday, we’ve been notified that several families have positive cases of Covid and attended our event,” the letter stated. “Since this was a fluid event with people mingling throughout the building, we thought it best to send a low risk letter to all families.”

As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

“Keep the masks optional. Those parents who have concerns about their student, absolutely feel free to wear a mask,” parent Amy Buchanan said.

“Cobb County Schools prides itself on being a school system of excellence. What is excellent about putting children in a situation where they can be potentially unsafe?” parent Courtney Johnson said.

So I propose we identify as Amys or Courtneys, for simplicity. I am a Courtney.
This is to emphasize that there are two sides regarding the upcoming school year around the country... and also that Amys are neither very smart nor very nice people.

this is about opening/closing schools, not masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reposting from deep in a thread in the Fairfax schools forum, but straight out of the Onion:
Families who attended Cobb elementary school open house test positive for COVID-19 (GA)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/families-who-atte...19/6ME5XNJXLFCLVM7OTCPQSI5NYY/

“We are super excited to get this school year started! Following our wonderful Sneak a Peek on Thursday, we’ve been notified that several families have positive cases of Covid and attended our event,” the letter stated. “Since this was a fluid event with people mingling throughout the building, we thought it best to send a low risk letter to all families.”

As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

“Keep the masks optional. Those parents who have concerns about their student, absolutely feel free to wear a mask,” parent Amy Buchanan said.

“Cobb County Schools prides itself on being a school system of excellence. What is excellent about putting children in a situation where they can be potentially unsafe?” parent Courtney Johnson said.

So I propose we identify as Amys or Courtneys, for simplicity. I am a Courtney.
This is to emphasize that there are two sides regarding the upcoming school year around the country... and also that Amys are neither very smart nor very nice people.

I don't think this thread is about masking in schools. It certainly doesn't seem to be a debate in this thread. It might have been a few weeks ago before updated CDC guidance, but no longer. Why are you deflecting into masking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

Impressive strawmanning!

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reposting from deep in a thread in the Fairfax schools forum, but straight out of the Onion:
Families who attended Cobb elementary school open house test positive for COVID-19 (GA)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/families-who-atte...19/6ME5XNJXLFCLVM7OTCPQSI5NYY/

“We are super excited to get this school year started! Following our wonderful Sneak a Peek on Thursday, we’ve been notified that several families have positive cases of Covid and attended our event,” the letter stated. “Since this was a fluid event with people mingling throughout the building, we thought it best to send a low risk letter to all families.”

As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

“Keep the masks optional. Those parents who have concerns about their student, absolutely feel free to wear a mask,” parent Amy Buchanan said.

“Cobb County Schools prides itself on being a school system of excellence. What is excellent about putting children in a situation where they can be potentially unsafe?” parent Courtney Johnson said.

So I propose we identify as Amys or Courtneys, for simplicity. I am a Courtney.
This is to emphasize that there are two sides regarding the upcoming school year around the country... and also that Amys are neither very smart nor very nice people.

this is about opening/closing schools, not masks.

"As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning."
DCPS follows the AAP guidance but if it didn't, half of our Amys on here would be just the one quoted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reposting from deep in a thread in the Fairfax schools forum, but straight out of the Onion:
Families who attended Cobb elementary school open house test positive for COVID-19 (GA)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/families-who-atte...19/6ME5XNJXLFCLVM7OTCPQSI5NYY/

“We are super excited to get this school year started! Following our wonderful Sneak a Peek on Thursday, we’ve been notified that several families have positive cases of Covid and attended our event,” the letter stated. “Since this was a fluid event with people mingling throughout the building, we thought it best to send a low risk letter to all families.”

As the district starts the school year, parents on both sides want a choice: A choice to wear a mask. A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

“Keep the masks optional. Those parents who have concerns about their student, absolutely feel free to wear a mask,” parent Amy Buchanan said.

“Cobb County Schools prides itself on being a school system of excellence. What is excellent about putting children in a situation where they can be potentially unsafe?” parent Courtney Johnson said.

So I propose we identify as Amys or Courtneys, for simplicity. I am a Courtney.
This is to emphasize that there are two sides regarding the upcoming school year around the country... and also that Amys are neither very smart nor very nice people.

I don't think this thread is about masking in schools. It certainly doesn't seem to be a debate in this thread. It might have been a few weeks ago before updated CDC guidance, but no longer. Why are you deflecting into masking?

Why are you? "I am a Courtney" = A choice to flip back to virtual learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
this is about opening/closing schools, not masks.

PP. No, it isn't. It is about offering a virtual option. You keep trying to make it about closing schools. We are not trying to "bulldoze your beachfront condo."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

zero covid deaths of kids in DC and MoCo. the understanding of covid and kids has been really pretty stable all along - taking into account, of course, the quickly changing landscape. there are certainly still some questions related to Delta, but the underlying assessment seems to be true especially wrt schools.

Four dead kids in Maryland. And counting. How many dead kids are acceptable to you?

God what a useless argument. We don't pay infinite costs to preserve every single life.

Do you get this outraged any time you hear about someone dying of another cause?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minimizing childhood Covid in the US—a play in 4 acts

Act 1 “Kids don’t get Covid”
Act 2 “Kids get Covid but don’t get ill”
Act 3 “Kids die from Covid but don’t worry, only kids with pre-existing conditions die”
Act 4 “Don’t worry, kids also die from drowning or car crashes”

zero covid deaths of kids in DC and MoCo. the understanding of covid and kids has been really pretty stable all along - taking into account, of course, the quickly changing landscape. there are certainly still some questions related to Delta, but the underlying assessment seems to be true especially wrt schools.

Four dead kids in Maryland. And counting. How many dead kids are acceptable to you?

Are you asking in balance with disrupting every kid's education for a THIRD school year? The risks would have to be very, very high. We don't shut schools for every risk to kid's health. This is where the car accident analogy comes into play - to elicit our actual risk analysis in settings less charged by cognitive bias than covid. So no, I would not agree to closing schools in DC because 4 kids died in MD over 18 months.

+1