Here is why we should close schools now.

[Anonymous]

It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

You’re right they shouldn’t. Absolutely. But we also can’t ignore studies that show school closures are an effective way to stop hospitals from being overwhelmed. This is why I think there should be a structural solution, because it’s a structural problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

+1. Also, not all experts agree that schools should be closed at this point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/opinion/coronavirus-school-closing.html

[Anonymous]

Frankly there should never have been the problem of parents missing out on their paychecks to take care of kids in an emergency. There always should have been mandated paid leave for emergencies and now it should be expanded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

Schools should close.
The county should put people on 1/3 work days unless they can telecommute.
Teachers can volunteer for 3x hazard pay and schools can be used at greatly reduced capacity as daycare to support FARMs families or others who need to work or a safe space for their kids. (See that 1/3 work rule). No more than 10 kids per classroom.

It is extreme and it will slow disease and save so many lives and it has worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

+1. Also, not all experts agree that schools should be closed at this point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/opinion/coronavirus-school-closing.html

Thanks for this link. I noticed this part: “ All students could be checked daily for fever, a possible sign of Covid-19 infection. Even more attention should be given to hand washing.”

I have heard so many stories about sinks not working and soap running out. And in a different thread posters were ridiculed for the suggestion that each child be checked for fever because apparently that’s just impossible? I don’t know. It’s so, so hard to know what the right thing is.

[Anonymous]

planning has started, FCPS closed on Mon to plan for remote schooling...

https://www.fcps.edu/news/coronavirus-update

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there should never have been the problem of parents missing out on their paychecks to take care of kids in an emergency. There always should have been mandated paid leave for emergencies and now it should be expanded.

I have paid sick leave. I only get 2 weeks a year. Except we had flu B last month and I already used a week of leave. Paid sick leave is not a panacea. We need schools to not close. If they close, daycares will too and those parents will be even more SOL. Parents of babies CANNOT telework. Parents of older kids have more ability to telework since their kids aren't as needy.

[Anonymous]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/does-closing-schools-slow-spread-novel-coronavirus

Q: How about proactive school closures, before there are any infections associated with a school? Are they helpful?

A: Proactive school closures—closing schools before there’s a case there—have been shown to be one of the most powerful nonpharmaceutical interventions that we can deploy. Proactive school closures work like reactive school closures not just because they get the children, the little vectors, removed from circulation. It’s not just about keeping the kids safe. It’s keeping the whole community safe. When you close the schools, you reduce the mixing of the adults—parents dropping off at the school, the teachers being present. When you close the schools, you effectively require the parents to stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of disgusting to hear upper middle class people with SAHMs arguing that schools should close. It seems that their voices are loudest on snow days too. For so many lower class and middle class kids, the safest place is at school. There's food, adults and activities. I know many kids sit at home in an unheated apartment watching TV on snow days with little to no food.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and staying home with their kids. And during this corona virus, there WON'T be camps you can pay extra to send your kids to.

+1. Also, not all experts agree that schools should be closed at this point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/opinion/coronavirus-school-closing.html

Cant agree more with this.

[Anonymous]

I’m not saying whether schools should close or not, but as long as school is in session I don’t see reasons I should change much else about my daily life. My biggest illness risk, I believe, is that my kids attend preschool and elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted this in another chat and am placing it here in case it might be helpful. I will add that the goal of closing schools is to help avoid that big spike in cases at the beginning and to flatten that curve. If the spike occurs, hospitals get overwhelmed, more health-care providers get ill, and hospitals might be forced to make difficult decisions on who receives care and who does not. This is happening in Italy. We would be about 1-2 weeks behind Italy in terms of potentially seeing that spike. Understandably, closing schools and taking other social-distancing measures are severe actions and affect people differently. But I think people might prepare for this possibility, regardless of whether they believe it’s a good or bad idea, and if you’re in the position to do so, try to help those who aren’t able to do so. For example, we have volunteered to be a “buddy” of an older lady who lives alone.

“In addition to the examples overseas that others have highlighted, some studies have suggested that school closings can help reduce the severity of an epidemic. There were studies after the H1N1 outbreaks that suggested that school closings by Mexico were successful. Another study by the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal compared two Texas communities during the H1N1 epidemic. One closed schools and the other didn’t. There were more visits to the hospital for the community where schools stayed open.

As for the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, University of Michigan Medical School’s Center for the History of Medicine researchers found that closing schools earlier and for longer was helpful in saving lives. In fact, it may have helped account for some of the differences in cities’ deaths. Researchers often compare St. Louis, which took drastic actions that many complained about, with Philadelphia, which didn’t act early and had a far worse outcome. In the book that I am reading about that pandemic, it’s interesting that you can see some of the same arguments that are being made today.

A few caveats. It’s not clear what the exact timing and duration should be. Also, the school closings were often in conjunction with other social distancing actions. Lastly, I read one article where someone brought up the point that younger healthy kids aren’t as affected by the coronavirus, though I would say there’s still a question of their role in transmission of the virus and, of course, there are children (and other family members) who are more vulnerable.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted this in another chat and am placing it here in case it might be helpful. I will add that the goal of closing schools is to help avoid that big spike in cases at the beginning and to flatten that curve. If the spike occurs, hospitals get overwhelmed, more health-care providers get ill, and hospitals might be forced to make difficult decisions on who receives care and who does not. This is happening in Italy. We would be about 1-2 weeks behind Italy in terms of potentially seeing that spike. Understandably, closing schools and taking other social-distancing measures are severe actions and affect people differently. But I think people might prepare for this possibility, regardless of whether they believe it’s a good or bad idea, and if you’re in the position to do so, try to help those who aren’t able to do so. For example, we have volunteered to be a “buddy” of an older lady who lives alone.

“In addition to the examples overseas that others have highlighted, some studies have suggested that school closings can help reduce the severity of an epidemic. There were studies after the H1N1 outbreaks that suggested that school closings by Mexico were successful. Another study by the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal compared two Texas communities during the H1N1 epidemic. One closed schools and the other didn’t. There were more visits to the hospital for the community where schools stayed open.

As for the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, University of Michigan Medical School’s Center for the History of Medicine researchers found that closing schools earlier and for longer was helpful in saving lives. In fact, it may have helped account for some of the differences in cities’ deaths. Researchers often compare St. Louis, which took drastic actions that many complained about, with Philadelphia, which didn’t act early and had a far worse outcome. In the book that I am reading about that pandemic, it’s interesting that you can see some of the same arguments that are being made today.

A few caveats. It’s not clear what the exact timing and duration should be. Also, the school closings were often in conjunction with other social distancing actions. Lastly, I read one article where someone brought up the point that younger healthy kids aren’t as affected by the coronavirus, though I would say there’s still a question of their role in transmission of the virus and, of course, there are children (and other family members) who are more vulnerable.”

Yes. 100%

People need to realize we are all f*cked if the spike happens. Inconvenience now to prevent many more deaths.

A matter of waiting 2 weeks to act on closures/quarantines was disastrous in places during the 1918 epidemic and, btw, this is much worse and spreads easier because such a long time of transmission asymptomatically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there should never have been the problem of parents missing out on their paychecks to take care of kids in an emergency. There always should have been mandated paid leave for emergencies and now it should be expanded.

How are small business owners (who will see a MASSIVE decrease in business, if not have to completely shut down) absorb this cost? I asked this earlier in the thread and was given a completely irrelevant response.

PP, do YOU own a business?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there should never have been the problem of parents missing out on their paychecks to take care of kids in an emergency. There always should have been mandated paid leave for emergencies and now it should be expanded.

How are small business owners (who will see a MASSIVE decrease in business, if not have to completely shut down) absorb this cost? I asked this earlier in the thread and was given a completely irrelevant response.

PP, do YOU own a business?

They don’t absorb the cost, they fold. Along with many larger companies.