A plea for kindness, or at least keep your mean thoughts to yourself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, OP, to a degree. Meaning that, as long as other parents are not taking actions that recklessly increase my child's COVID risk, like sending sick kids to school, or trying to get away with their kids not wearing masks, anything people choose for themselves is fine by me.

Sending a sick child to school is not equivalent to not wearing a mask. Even pre-COVID, you should never go anywhere in public if you're sick. Drives me nuts people would consider doing that.

As for masking kids, it is not scientifically proven and the CDC's own study showed no statistical difference. That was discussed above already. 18+ months into the pandemic and my kids sure as he** don't mask except where required by law.

yet another example of our society failing...

Yes. This type of attitude is why the pandemic has been so bad. The sacrifice to just follow the advice of the scientific experts on this (wearing a mask) is so small but people just hem and haw and cite stray inconclusive data to avoid the minimal sacrifice.

Exactly.

CDC recommends masking (and vaccinating & screening).
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html

The CDC's own study showed that masking kids in school was statistically not significant. Why don't they follow their own study? And young kids in many European countries don't mask.

Vaccinations are not equal to masking. Please do not say that. Some people are not getting vaccinated right now because they think a junky cloth mask protects them.

Wearing a mask 18 months +, especially for small kids learning socialization, is not "minimal sacrifice." If you want your kids to do that, go ahead. Your choice.

And I believe in vaccines. I want to tell the unvaccinated that vaccinations work. COVID is an endemic and not going away. Therefore, I am not wearing a mask. Good day.

That is so irrational...

Anyway, your kid is wearing a mask at school, so that decision has already been made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Asymptomatic testing?!? No thanks - way too much of a chance of false positives, which will mean unnecessarily closing the school to my kids again.

The current prevalence rate for the coronavirus in the United States is roughly 15 cases per 10,000 people per week. (Prevalence in schools tends to be similar to, or lower than, that in the surrounding community.) If you give 10,000 people a test that produces false positives 2 percent of the time, that means you might get 215 positives: 15 true positives and 200 false positives. In other words, more than 90 percent of the positive test results will be incorrect.

No, the rate of false positives is low. Much lower than 2%.

Overall, it's fine to have some false positives if that means we are also able to identify true positives and quickly shut down spread.

Nope. My kid is not unnecessarily missing school for a week when COVID barely transmits in a school setting. They missed way too much last year and during the spring 2020.

You'd rather have a large outbreak that may send whole classrooms home? Or grade level?

Anyway, the chance of false positives is very low.

If you can't uphold the social contract, then keep your kids home.

The chances of a large outbreak are so, so tiny, especially at the ES level. We have a year's worth of evidence that demonstrates that tiny risk. Then add in the tiny risk to children from COVID (less than the daily risk of them riding in our car to go to school), the risk becomes so minute that it's a no brainer to opt out of asymptomatic testing.

Those that have a different risk profile, feel free to get your kids asymptomatically tested as much as you want. We're passing for DS.

Asymptomatic testing is not part of the social contract. If it was, the school system would require it.

Michael Osterholm would like to have a word...

"First of all, we have to understand that the situation we have with school children this year is very different than we had last year,' said Osterholm. "This Delta variant has fundamentally changed the whole situation in terms of transmission a year ago." The former form of COVID, he says, "was not well transmitted between kids. You didn't see them transmitting to others. They were not often infected themselves. That's changed. They are now—the kids are now just as likely to get infected as adults and they're just as likely to transmit it. So from that perspective, much of the work that was done to make recommendations about how to handle schoolchildren were from a pre Delta era. And those recommendations really are no longer effective in terms of what we need to do. So we have to understand we're going to have real problems in our schools."

Dr. Doom himself, Michael Osterholm (although I will give him credit for recently saying cloth masks "are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out"). He just said the other day on a podcast that it's not "safe" for kids to go back to school. There are so few scientists who say that. Plus, England would love to have a word with him.

There are people in this town that would love for schools to close again. It is a fact. Look at the media they follow and people they cite.

Dr. Doom? Give me a break. He also said high quality masks work and should be used. And he was honest in saying that school isn't safe right now by any traditional measure of the word, but could be made "safer" by layering environmental mitigations that we know work. He is brutally honest and certainly doesn't schools closed forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this post from Ventilation Woman or Lunch Petitioner?

Smart Restart's Twitter page is cranking out 24/7 fear porn for the past week (which Ventilation Woman runs). Today they reTweeted that sending kids back to school is essentially "forced infection of children" and "one of the greatest mistakes in the history of public health." Take a scroll through that Twitter page for the past week - it's doom and gloom, and daily updates whenever any APS kid had even a close contact.

So no, I'm not going to stop speaking up with groups like this trying to influence public policy. We all have our own risk tolerances, but groups like this are trying to cram their irrational, non-scientific, quasi-religious views down everyone's throats.

In all seriousness, why are you so obsessed with these 2 parents? There are so many posts about them, many of which are likely from you. It’s more than a little terrifying and sad. I get that you don’t agree with their message or their tactics, but why are you always personally attacking them?

Take a look at that Twitter page and the fearmongering to the community. If someone is advocating to keep my kids from going to go to school, it is personal.
https://twitter.com/smartrestartaps

NP and I totally agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Welp whaddya gonna do?

"Online Trolls Actually Just A&$holes All the Time, Study Finds"

https://gizmodo.com/online-trolls-actually-just-assholes-all-the-time-stud-1847575210?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3tac3AVA6SFKa6FFDgOfxF4JJS97FIzgSOQbADTEoPtWfZpfGe6ZgK2Mc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welp whaddya gonna do?

"Online Trolls Actually Just A&$holes All the Time, Study Finds"

https://gizmodo.com/online-trolls-actually-just-assholes-all-the-time-stud-1847575210?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3tac3AVA6SFKa6FFDgOfxF4JJS97FIzgSOQbADTEoPtWfZpfGe6ZgK2Mc

100% accurately describes the OP of this thread !

Glad you recognize it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of what is going on is in response to the many vile and hateful things said and posted by the pro-DL crowd last year. Not excusing it, but there is history here.

Who are the pro-DL people?

And what did they say/post that was so vile?

I'm guessing that you are the PP who conflates everyone.

I'm not sure how you missed it or if you are intentionally misremembering. But statements such as the below were said often about anyone who wanted kids back in in-person schooling:

- you hate being around your kids
- your kids have mental illness because of you
- your kids are struggling because of you
- you just want childcare
- you are a lazy parent
- you don't want to raise your kids
- you don't care if you kill grandma
- you don't care if you kill teachers
- your kids are defective if they aren't thriving in DL
- your kids have disabilities because of you
- your kids are just stupid if DL doesn't work

And that's just a subset. Stuff like this was said indiscriminately to parents of kids with disabilities, parents who were going to lose their jobs because kids weren't in school, single parents, etc. It was cruel, constant, and actually still goes on from some people who still want virtual school.

I don't excuse rudeness from people pushing for IPL, but it is also true that many people against IPL have a very long history of saying terrible, cruel things themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welp whaddya gonna do?

"Online Trolls Actually Just A&$holes All the Time, Study Finds"

https://gizmodo.com/online-trolls-actually-just-assholes-all-the-time-stud-1847575210?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3tac3AVA6SFKa6FFDgOfxF4JJS97FIzgSOQbADTEoPtWfZpfGe6ZgK2Mc

100% accurately describes the OP of this thread !

Glad you recognize it

aaaaand you just made my point. You literally can't help yourself. But I'm not going to stoop to your level and say anything mean back. It's a nice day. Go out in the sun, take a walk, enjoy your family. Maybe you'll feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welp whaddya gonna do?

"Online Trolls Actually Just A&$holes All the Time, Study Finds"

https://gizmodo.com/online-trolls-actually-just-assholes-all-the-time-stud-1847575210?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3tac3AVA6SFKa6FFDgOfxF4JJS97FIzgSOQbADTEoPtWfZpfGe6ZgK2Mc

100% accurately describes the OP of this thread !

Glad you recognize it

aaaaand you just made my point. You literally can't help yourself. But I'm not going to stoop to your level and say anything mean back. It's a nice day. Go out in the sun, take a walk, enjoy your family. Maybe you'll feel better.

DP. Idk, I do not think that's making the point? As people have pointed out, there has been a lot of unkind nastiness flung both ways in this heated debate, and it does feel a little disengenuous on the part of OP to only focus on one group. It would be different if OP had asked for kindness to be extended in all directions, but she didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of what is going on is in response to the many vile and hateful things said and posted by the pro-DL crowd last year. Not excusing it, but there is history here.

Who are the pro-DL people?

And what did they say/post that was so vile?

I'm guessing that you are the PP who conflates everyone.

I'm not sure how you missed it or if you are intentionally misremembering. But statements such as the below were said often about anyone who wanted kids back in in-person schooling:

- you hate being around your kids
- your kids have mental illness because of you
- your kids are struggling because of you
- you just want childcare
- you are a lazy parent
- you don't want to raise your kids
- you don't care if you kill grandma
- you don't care if you kill teachers
- your kids are defective if they aren't thriving in DL
- your kids have disabilities because of you
- your kids are just stupid if DL doesn't work

And that's just a subset. Stuff like this was said indiscriminately to parents of kids with disabilities, parents who were going to lose their jobs because kids weren't in school, single parents, etc. It was cruel, constant, and actually still goes on from some people who still want virtual school.

I don't excuse rudeness from people pushing for IPL, but it is also true that many people against IPL have a very long history of saying terrible, cruel things themselves.

Yep, the pro-DL Brigade was/is the worst. A bunch of miserable, self-righteous ding dongs who are happy hiding from the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of what is going on is in response to the many vile and hateful things said and posted by the pro-DL crowd last year. Not excusing it, but there is history here.

Who are the pro-DL people?

And what did they say/post that was so vile?

I'm guessing that you are the PP who conflates everyone.

I'm not sure how you missed it or if you are intentionally misremembering. But statements such as the below were said often about anyone who wanted kids back in in-person schooling:

- you hate being around your kids
- your kids have mental illness because of you
- your kids are struggling because of you
- you just want childcare
- you are a lazy parent
- you don't want to raise your kids
- you don't care if you kill grandma
- you don't care if you kill teachers
- your kids are defective if they aren't thriving in DL
- your kids have disabilities because of you
- your kids are just stupid if DL doesn't work

And that's just a subset. Stuff like this was said indiscriminately to parents of kids with disabilities, parents who were going to lose their jobs because kids weren't in school, single parents, etc. It was cruel, constant, and actually still goes on from some people who still want virtual school.

I don't excuse rudeness from people pushing for IPL, but it is also true that many people against IPL have a very long history of saying terrible, cruel things themselves.

Yep, the pro-DL Brigade was/is the worst. A bunch of miserable, self-righteous ding dongs who are happy hiding from the world.

Kind of the poster child for the concerns raised by the OP, aren't you? The parents I know from SR, some of whom might be considered "leaders" based on the number of derisive comments made about them on this board, all have their kids in person. They socialize and, while they take precautions like getting vaccines/wearing masks/etc., they are definitely not hiding. They are definitely not ding dongs either.

[Anonymous]

There’s this weird inclination by certain elements to attack Attack ATTACK.

They attack the Board, APS staff, teachers, parents, their non-preferred board candidate, anyone outside of APE.

They make stuff up claiming other parents not in their group were pro DL or wanted closed schools.

So many teachers couldn’t take this abuse and left AEM or won’t post on there anymore and unfortunately some left APS.

It’s very sad and VERY intentional. A plea for civility won’t work with this crowd.