Should we prepare for virtual schooling starting in January?

[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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Even Sidwell is school by school. They didn’t close their elementary or middle schools, only the HS and they only went virtual for two days pre break.

[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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

The truth is, it's not really a choice at this junction.

You cannot stop an upper respiratory infection with R=4 with quarantines, short of shutting down the entire country Netherlands-style... only to have it reemerge as soon as you reopen ANYTHING.

All indicators are that Omicron is not the plague, it's a glorified cold which likely confers at least some degree of immunity to the "bad boy" COVID viruses. There may well be some increase in hospitalizations simply due to soooooo many people getting sick, and some sadly finding out that their body cannot beat Omicron back. While the absolute numbers of admission may grow, the percentages will be low, much lower than Alpha or Delta.

Parents of schoolchildren are not in the risk group. Right now around me, plenty of families are sick secondary to usual activities of daily living like going to the grocery store. Since many parents do not work from home, their children will go to some kind of arrangements for childcare where Omicron will spread just as readily, and go through society to reach all the virtual students / teachers since it is immensely contagious. Luckily for us, it's a mild sickness. I honestly do not know what we would have done otherwise; Omicron is unstoppable.

I do support opening virtual academies and making them available to every family whose unique situation or personal sensibilities suggest that this is the best course of action for their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

The truth is, it's not really a choice at this junction.

You cannot stop an upper respiratory infection with R=4 with quarantines, short of shutting down the entire country Netherlands-style... only to have it reemerge as soon as you reopen ANYTHING.

All indicators are that Omicron is not the plague, it's a glorified cold which likely confers at least some degree of immunity to the "bad boy" COVID viruses. There may well be some increase in hospitalizations simply due to soooooo many people getting sick, and some sadly finding out that their body cannot beat Omicron back. While the absolute numbers of admission may grow, the percentages will be low, much lower than Alpha or Delta.

Parents of schoolchildren are not in the risk group. Right now around me, plenty of families are sick secondary to usual activities of daily living like going to the grocery store. Since many parents do not work from home, their children will go to some kind of arrangements for childcare where Omicron will spread just as readily, and go through society to reach all the virtual students / teachers since it is immensely contagious. Luckily for us, it's a mild sickness. I honestly do not know what we would have done otherwise; Omicron is unstoppable.

I do support opening virtual academies and making them available to every family whose unique situation or personal sensibilities suggest that this is the best course of action for their children.

Thank you for that sensible response.

I think the only criteria for Mass virtual is going to be if critical number of staff at a certain school is quarantined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It will be 3 months and in 3 months we will have another more contagious variant. Less deadly? More deadly? Who knows.but we do know that no one has super immunity. You get immunized. You get boosted. You get covid. You get covid again.

Going virtual will at least slow it down and hopefully, fewer people will get it in the near term. Going forward I'd expect more effective treatments to become available so lives will be saved.

+1. It's foolish to pin hopes on the ostrich method since this virus has already demonstrated a proclivity towards mutation. Eventually the virus runs it's course, but you need to buy time. Unfortunately, when you provide the virus a concentrated environment to spread, you also increase the risk of spreading yet-to-be-sequenced variants. The virus could eventually peter out (ex. the virus mutates into a benign form) or it could mutate into a more deadly strain the more hosts it replicates to.

It is true we have proactive methods (masks and vaccinations), but it is also true that there are grown adults (who know better) doing neither right now. Only 180K doses of Paxlovid are currently available, so why are you pushing fake science knowing this? Because your own kids are "bouncing off the walls"? Sounds like a personal family issue to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It will be 3 months and in 3 months we will have another more contagious variant. Less deadly? More deadly? Who knows.but we do know that no one has super immunity. You get immunized. You get boosted. You get covid. You get covid again.

Going virtual will at least slow it down and hopefully, fewer people will get it in the near term. Going forward I'd expect more effective treatments to become available so lives will be saved.

+1. It's foolish to pin hopes on the ostrich method since this virus has already demonstrated a proclivity towards mutation. Eventually the virus runs it's course, but you need to buy time. Unfortunately, when you provide the virus a concentrated environment to spread, you also increase the risk of spreading yet-to-be-sequenced variants. The virus could eventually peter out (ex. the virus mutates into a benign form) or it could mutate into a more deadly strain the more hosts it replicates to.

It is true we have proactive methods (masks and vaccinations), but it is also true that there are grown adults (who know better) doing neither right now. Only 180K doses of Paxlovid are currently available, so why are you pushing fake science knowing this? Because your own kids are "bouncing off the walls"? Sounds like a personal family issue to me.

For all the reasons you mentioned it makes no sense to close schools. Covid will continue to spread and mutate, and there is nothing on the horizon that will significantly change any of that.

[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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

Parents should get vaccinated and booster then. We can’t protect people that aren’t willing to protect themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It will be 3 months and in 3 months we will have another more contagious variant. Less deadly? More deadly? Who knows.but we do know that no one has super immunity. You get immunized. You get boosted. You get covid. You get covid again.

Going virtual will at least slow it down and hopefully, fewer people will get it in the near term. Going forward I'd expect more effective treatments to become available so lives will be saved.

+1. It's foolish to pin hopes on the ostrich method since this virus has already demonstrated a proclivity towards mutation. Eventually the virus runs it's course, but you need to buy time. Unfortunately, when you provide the virus a concentrated environment to spread, you also increase the risk of spreading yet-to-be-sequenced variants. The virus could eventually peter out (ex. the virus mutates into a benign form) or it could mutate into a more deadly strain the more hosts it replicates to.

It is true we have proactive methods (masks and vaccinations), but it is also true that there are grown adults (who know better) doing neither right now. Only 180K doses of Paxlovid are currently available, so why are you pushing fake science knowing this? Because your own kids are "bouncing off the walls"? Sounds like a personal family issue to me.

Fake science? There are 7.9 billion people on the planet that congregate in multimillion concentrated environments. What MCPS does or doesn't do is beyond irrelevant in that context. The fact that you're actually making this argument tells me you have nothing substantive to add to the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

The truth is, it's not really a choice at this junction.

You cannot stop an upper respiratory infection with R=4 with quarantines, short of shutting down the entire country Netherlands-style... only to have it reemerge as soon as you reopen ANYTHING.

All indicators are that Omicron is not the plague, it's a glorified cold which likely confers at least some degree of immunity to the "bad boy" COVID viruses. There may well be some increase in hospitalizations simply due to soooooo many people getting sick, and some sadly finding out that their body cannot beat Omicron back. While the absolute numbers of admission may grow, the percentages will be low, much lower than Alpha or Delta.

Parents of schoolchildren are not in the risk group. Right now around me, plenty of families are sick secondary to usual activities of daily living like going to the grocery store. Since many parents do not work from home, their children will go to some kind of arrangements for childcare where Omicron will spread just as readily, and go through society to reach all the virtual students / teachers since it is immensely contagious. Luckily for us, it's a mild sickness. I honestly do not know what we would have done otherwise; Omicron is unstoppable.

I do support opening virtual academies and making them available to every family whose unique situation or personal sensibilities suggest that this is the best course of action for their children.

Lot of truth in there. You can't control Omicron with 2020 strategies. The virus has to run its course. If a community tries to hide from it, that population is just collectively fertile ground for the virus when it eventual re-emerges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am hoarding cash in case I have to move back to private. But I don’t think they will - MoCo says they will be DL only if the state orders it, and Hogan wants to be president so he won’t.

Now that my kids are vaccinated, I even expect fewer quarantines than fall. More absent kids but just 1-2 who are actually (mildly) ill.

Can you please provide a picture of what hoarding cash looks like?

[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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

What's worse, one kid losing her parents or 10,000 kids with depression and perhaps 10 attempting suicide.

Because that's the actual trade-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

What's worse, one kid losing her parents or 10,000 kids with depression and perhaps 10 attempting suicide.

Because that's the actual trade-off.

No, that's the trade-off you made up arbitrarily. I'm sure in Minsk it makes sense? Perhaps a translation issue, or the fact that you weren't taught to value human life because your parents were just as sociopathic and bereft of human decency as you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

What's worse, one kid losing her parents or 10,000 kids with depression and perhaps 10 attempting suicide.

Because that's the actual trade-off.

No, that's the trade-off you made up arbitrarily. I'm sure in Minsk it makes sense? Perhaps a translation issue, or the fact that you weren't taught to value human life because your parents were just as sociopathic and bereft of human decency as you are.

What is this new Minks trend? Can someone explain it to me? Russian troll worked so well. Why did we change to Belorussian troll?

[Anonymous]

How did going virtual for a year and a half stopped the spread? Did we beat the spread by going virtual?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are you seriously STILL trying to make the argument that virtual is better, ever? No. Virtual is terrible. I'm sorry it's hard to get 5 yo to keep masks on, maybe you should ask the child care teachers you are so much better than, how they manage. It also won't stop the spread because the kids are not going to go an isolate at home, they will be mixing with other kids because SCHOOL IS CHILD CARE for many families and when it shuts down, families scramble to find other arrangements which might be different each day. I get schools might HAVE to close but the union better not f$ing dare try to argue they know more about public health than public health officials. If bars and restaurants are allowed to open, schools must be open.

Virtual was terrible for your kids because of your attitude and unwillingness to help. Closing down businesses will not fully help and cause other issues. If school is your child care, think about things you can do to keep it open. This is going to surge after the holidays. You realize we don't have several months of school in the summer and yet families manage.

Virtual was terrible for MOST children because MOST children do not do their best learning staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a day. And if they did better on virtual it's probably because they are lazy little couch potatoes not because you have some special parenting secret sauce you need to brag about on an anonymous forum

You know what's also terrible for most children? Losing their parents. I realize going virtual may not be convenient for you but more people are still with us because we did the right thing.

The truth is, it's not really a choice at this junction.

You cannot stop an upper respiratory infection with R=4 with quarantines, short of shutting down the entire country Netherlands-style... only to have it reemerge as soon as you reopen ANYTHING.

All indicators are that Omicron is not the plague, it's a glorified cold which likely confers at least some degree of immunity to the "bad boy" COVID viruses. There may well be some increase in hospitalizations simply due to soooooo many people getting sick, and some sadly finding out that their body cannot beat Omicron back. While the absolute numbers of admission may grow, the percentages will be low, much lower than Alpha or Delta.

Parents of schoolchildren are not in the risk group. Right now around me, plenty of families are sick secondary to usual activities of daily living like going to the grocery store. Since many parents do not work from home, their children will go to some kind of arrangements for childcare where Omicron will spread just as readily, and go through society to reach all the virtual students / teachers since it is immensely contagious. Luckily for us, it's a mild sickness. I honestly do not know what we would have done otherwise; Omicron is unstoppable.

I do support opening virtual academies and making them available to every family whose unique situation or personal sensibilities suggest that this is the best course of action for their children.

Lot of truth in there. You can't control Omicron with 2020 strategies. The virus has to run its course. If a community tries to hide from it, that population is just collectively fertile ground for the virus when it eventual re-emerges.

Amen. I’m a teacher. I’ll be back after New Year, maybe with double cloth masks like I did last winter, but that’s it. I have three shots. My 11 year old is vaccinated. His school does test and stay which I fully support. I expect he will miss more school than I like but no virtual. We’ve just recovered from that mess.