Is there a chance the kids won't go back in person next fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In March, it'll be *one solid yr* since virtually *all* LA County K-12 kids have been on a campus/inside a classroom. Extremely discouraged, and starting to lose hope re fall semester, too. No officials pushing for reopening. The Class of 2022 may end up having spent bulk of his career at home.

Same for the large public school districts here. I wake up every day amazed that the government is OK with this. You can go to Disney World or get a tattoo. Literally you can do anything but go to public school. School shouldn't be a luxury good available only to the wealthy. What a sad state of affairs.

In la county, it's not just public; it's all privates, too. Everything's been closed since March. (In November, a handful of privates got the ok for k-2 in person.)

[Anonymous]

MCPS won’t go back in fall. There is no exit strategy.

[Anonymous]

If all of the adults are vaccinated (teachers/faculty and no one gets to opt out of the vax before returning) and parents show they've been vaccinated then kids of all ages should be able to return to school with masks. Even if its hybrid half on/half off - I'd take that over virtual school. There is no reason for all virtual with vaccinated adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In March, it'll be *one solid yr* since virtually *all* LA County K-12 kids have been on a campus/inside a classroom. Extremely discouraged, and starting to lose hope re fall semester, too. No officials pushing for reopening. The Class of 2022 may end up having spent bulk of his career at home.

Same for the large public school districts here. I wake up every day amazed that the government is OK with this. You can go to Disney World or get a tattoo. Literally you can do anything but go to public school. School shouldn't be a luxury good available only to the wealthy. What a sad state of affairs.

In la county, it's not just public; it's all privates, too. Everything's been closed since March. (In November, a handful of privates got the ok for k-2 in person.)

+1 LA private school parent here, we've been 100% virtual since March 2019. Lower grades had a few months of partial days due to the wavers but DC (7th grade) was virtual the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In March, it'll be *one solid yr* since virtually *all* LA County K-12 kids have been on a campus/inside a classroom. Extremely discouraged, and starting to lose hope re fall semester, too. No officials pushing for reopening. The Class of 2022 may end up having spent bulk of his career at home.

Same for the large public school districts here. I wake up every day amazed that the government is OK with this. You can go to Disney World or get a tattoo. Literally you can do anything but go to public school. School shouldn't be a luxury good available only to the wealthy. What a sad state of affairs.

In la county, it's not just public; it's all privates, too. Everything's been closed since March. (In November, a handful of privates got the ok for k-2 in person.)

+1 LA private school parent here, we've been 100% virtual since March 2019. Lower grades had a few months of partial days due to the wavers but DC (7th grade) was virtual the whole time.

PP: wavers = waivers. *insert waving emoji here*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS won’t go back in fall. There is no exit strategy.

We don’t need one. They don’t need vaccinations. We will reach herd immunity by July.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My private school will be full time in person. Public school parents have been taken for a ride.

We can't do anything about it, and when we speak up we are shamed for not caring about teachers or the community.

If you live in Evanston Illinois, you are called a white supremist (no that is not my typo) by the Superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it could be 2 more years before we have a pediatric vaccine. I've worked in peds vaccine trials. They are slow going. Recruitment is very slow.

Are some of you really saying that there should be no in-person school until 2023?

I don’t get it either. It’s maddening. It makes absolutely no sense. This pandemic has taught me how excessive fear can take hold of people and make them believe things they never thought possible.

The fear is insane. But I’m optimistic. In a few days we will have a competent and sane president with super qualified people working for him. Biden will tell everyone school is safe (once the vaccine is more wildly available and numbers come down of course) and watch everyone will listen and be on board. People can’t think for themselves. As soon as a federal government that they believe in tells them it’s Ok the conversation will shift. And it has to. Biden knows that schools opening is critical to social and economic recovery.

Yeah, Biden will handle this better, no doubt. I hope he doesn’t let fear mongerer Andy Slavitt anywhere near the school closure debacle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous. We need to get back to in person school. Maryland teachers are eligible to get the vaccine starting on Monday. I know it will take time to vaccinate all teachers, but there is absolutely NO reason not to go back in the fall. Honestly, I think they should go back in person after spring break, at least the MCPS families who elected for in-person.

We need to get covid under control. We need to cancel spring break.

The terrified teachers are posting vacation pics to instagram.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it could be 2 more years before we have a pediatric vaccine. I've worked in peds vaccine trials. They are slow going. Recruitment is very slow.

Are some of you really saying that there should be no in-person school until 2023?

I don’t get it either. It’s maddening. It makes absolutely no sense. This pandemic has taught me how excessive fear can take hold of people and make them believe things they never thought possible.

The fear is insane. But I’m optimistic. In a few days we will have a competent and sane president with super qualified people working for him. Biden will tell everyone school is safe (once the vaccine is more wildly available and numbers come down of course) and watch everyone will listen and be on board. People can’t think for themselves. As soon as a federal government that they believe in tells them it’s Ok the conversation will shift. And it has to. Biden knows that schools opening is critical to social and economic recovery.

Yeah, Biden will handle this better, no doubt. I hope he doesn’t let fear mongerer Andy Slavitt anywhere near the school closure debacle.

How will he handle it better? There isn't much that can be done until numbers go down. That relies on both vaccines and behavior. People aren't going to change their behavior so we have to wait out enough people getting vaccinated and hope its effective.

[Anonymous]

Sadly I don’t think they’re going back until 2022. I can’t imagine they’d find enough teachers to go. And the ones who go back will be so burnt out trying to teach remedial to kids all year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it could be 2 more years before we have a pediatric vaccine. I've worked in peds vaccine trials. They are slow going. Recruitment is very slow.

Are some of you really saying that there should be no in-person school until 2023?

I don’t get it either. It’s maddening. It makes absolutely no sense. This pandemic has taught me how excessive fear can take hold of people and make them believe things they never thought possible.

The fear is insane. But I’m optimistic. In a few days we will have a competent and sane president with super qualified people working for him. Biden will tell everyone school is safe (once the vaccine is more wildly available and numbers come down of course) and watch everyone will listen and be on board. People can’t think for themselves. As soon as a federal government that they believe in tells them it’s Ok the conversation will shift. And it has to. Biden knows that schools opening is critical to social and economic recovery.

Yeah, Biden will handle this better, no doubt. I hope he doesn’t let fear mongerer Andy Slavitt anywhere near the school closure debacle.

How will he handle it better? There isn't much that can be done until numbers go down. That relies on both vaccines and behavior. People aren't going to change their behavior so we have to wait out enough people getting vaccinated and hope its effective.

What do you mean people aren’t going to change their behavior? We have essentially wipes out the flu this year. People are behaving. It’s just not very effective against Covid.

How about a national plan to speed up vaccinations. There are a lot of ways to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who is a teacher and thinks they can't if the kids aren't vaccinated as well. Thoughts?

Well, kids definitely won't all be vaccinated by an August start date so if she's right then, no, they won't be back in school by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS, yes, because logic has gone out the window, and they seem more focused on deferring to anxiety and politics than facts and science. It’s particularly painful since we’re home to the NIH and the FDA.

I’m a progressive Democrat, FWIW, and completely disgusted by how far down the list kids are in this whole mess. It’s like schools exist solely to provide jobs for adults.

+1
OP here. This is how it's looking. If teachers are vaccinated and masks work, then why not return them to school? I'd even take half day school at thsi point. Kids and parents are being held hostage based on how people "feel" about returning, not science. Same people who feel uneasy with opening schools are fine with their grocery store workers working full shifts dealing with hundreds of people every day, not just 5-10 masked children who are staying in one place and have parents who would be happy to give them a saliva test every week to get them back in school if need be.

I agree to a point but young kids aren’t that good about staying masked or washing their hands. Kids have and will die from covid even though it’s a small percentage.

And then there are the anti-vaxxers...

How young? My twins are in first grade and have been in school in person since August. They're better at remembering their masks than my husband and I are (because we don't go anywhere so we don't wear them as often). They will keep them on in the car on the way home from school. The other day one kept hers on after going to the playground and only pulled it down to take a drink of water at the dinner table before pulling it back up. When I saw her do that I told her she could take it off and she said "oh, I'm so used to wearing it now." Give kids some credit. Maybe two-year olds are having a hard time with this, but Elementary kids are doing a great job. Maybe not all of them, but most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Vinay Prasad at UC San Fran, professor of epidemiology and physician, actually had a pretty good twitter thread about this on Jan 13th: "Let me be perfectly clear: children DO NOT NEED a sars-cov-2 vaccine before they are permitted to return to normal activities, such as school and visiting loved ones. Any claims to the contrary are demoralizing and counter to common sense and medicine". Worth reading his opinion on this.

In the thread he goes into his specific reasons for this, including that it may take up to a couple of years for a kids' vaccine that has a "sufficiently favorable benefit/harm profile" and that the virus for most children does not have severe health effects.

This. There may not be a benefit to vaccinating young kids at all, so waiting for that to happen is not an option!