Should we prepare for virtual schooling starting in January?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many colleges moving to virtual for spring, cancelling December commencement etc.. it would not be a surprise if mcps went virtual again. I certainly hope it doesn’t. Virtual has been terrible for my child. 2nd grader never got to have a full year of school since Kindergarten!

Better to go private.

Like sidwell went virtual too?

They went virtual right before their scheduled break. No private has gone virtual for good or for a term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

You have any evidence on that? Aside, no half ass measure like closing schools while keeping everything else open is going to make any difference containing the virus is time. It needs to burn thru.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been safe and covid free for this entire pandemic until now. My 3 kids went back in person last Spring when MCPS opened back up and now one of my kids who are all fully vaccinated just tested positive for Covid today and all three went to school yesterday. I have 2 others in MCPS so it is possible they will also test positive possibly by the time schools return in Jan. This new strain is no joke and seems to be affecting even the fully vaccinated and boostered.

Congrats! You will soon have super immunity and lose your fear and anxiety. Those kids will be bouncing off the walls in 3 days max if they ever even develop symptoms. This is why we don’t test unless sick. I don’t need to know if any one of us has a teeny bit of virus that our bodies are obviously doing an awesome job fighting. This will be over soon. Let it burn. Check back in 3 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been safe and covid free for this entire pandemic until now. My 3 kids went back in person last Spring when MCPS opened back up and now one of my kids who are all fully vaccinated just tested positive for Covid today and all three went to school yesterday. I have 2 others in MCPS so it is possible they will also test positive possibly by the time schools return in Jan. This new strain is no joke and seems to be affecting even the fully vaccinated and boostered.

Congrats! You will soon have super immunity and lose your fear and anxiety. Those kids will be bouncing off the walls in 3 days max if they ever even develop symptoms. This is why we don’t test unless sick. I don’t need to know if any one of us has a teeny bit of virus that our bodies are obviously doing an awesome job fighting. This will be over soon. Let it burn. Check back in 3 weeks.

I'm not trying to challenge you, but genuinely curious. Why would you test at all? Why does being sick make a difference? If we are just treating it like a cold now, why does it matter?

[Anonymous]

You guys. We don’t want to slow the spread or contain the virus. We are a highly vaccinated community. Omicron is mild. A cold if anything at all.

What we want to do is this - and it’s going to sound crazy compared to the mitigation practices of last year - we want to let this thing run its course. The sooner it can do that, the sooner we’re out of this mess. Look at what’s happening in South Africa. They’re dropping testing and quarantining. Their peak was Dec 15th, most of the population had covid. Now they’re moving on. That’s what we want here too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

What? Please provide your studies. This isn't true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys. We don’t want to slow the spread or contain the virus. We are a highly vaccinated community. Omicron is mild. A cold if anything at all.

What we want to do is this - and it’s going to sound crazy compared to the mitigation practices of last year - we want to let this thing run its course. The sooner it can do that, the sooner we’re out of this mess. Look at what’s happening in South Africa. They’re dropping testing and quarantining. Their peak was Dec 15th, most of the population had covid. Now they’re moving on. That’s what we want here too.

Sincere questions here. I'm really trying to thin this through.

1. What does it mean for you for it to "run its course"? I gather this isn't like chicken pox where you get it once and never again. So what does it mean in this context?
2. How do the unvoluntarily unvaccinated fit in to your analysis? Specifically, young children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Here we are back to treating kids like loathe some disease vectors again. Haven’t we done enough harm to children based on hysteria?

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

What? Please provide your studies. This isn't true.

It’s not true. It’s literally a message board folktale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

K teacher for mcps here. Even though most of my kids are vaccinated, I spend half of my day reminding students to keep their masks over their noses and mouths. Some of them are completely oblivious to their mask placement, have little spacial sense (will get right in eachothers faces) and teachers/siblings are dropping like flies at our school with covid.

We need to go virtual for two weeks to stop the spread and resume in person instruction. While in person is best, if teachers are on edge and kids are sick, no one is going to be available for actual meaningful learning.

No. Last time you shut down "for two weeks to stop the spread" you remained closed for a year and a half and harmed my kid and thousands of others. Keep the schools open.

I’m sorry—wasn’t the argument that “schools should be the last thing to close”? That we should close things like restaurants and bars before schools? So are you advocating for closing other things?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Don't know but closing schools would be a smart move since reducing the spread among asymptomatic children has been shown to be one of the biggest factors in containing the virus.

What? Please provide your studies. This isn't true.

It’s not true. It’s literally a message board folktale.

Agree. People are not using common sense anymore. Why the hell would we keep healthy kids and teachers out of school? If they’re asymptomatic they are healthy. That’s what healthy bodies do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many colleges moving to virtual for spring, cancelling December commencement etc.. it would not be a surprise if mcps went virtual again. I certainly hope it doesn’t. Virtual has been terrible for my child. 2nd grader never got to have a full year of school since Kindergarten!

Better to go private.

You can’t just go private right now. The schools have application processes, especially the high schools. There are limits. These class sizes are much smaller. You can’t just jump to private because all of a sudden your public school is looking to close again.

And some private schools moved to virtual instruction about a week or two ago. No guarantee they’ll stay open.

[Anonymous]

You guys are exhausting.

Positivity rate > 5% for 14 days = virtual for 2 weeks.

And we WILL reach it.

[Anonymous]

Positivity is at 10% in our area, so… even with schools’ incompetent way of miscounting cases, they’ll find we have to close