Reply to Why aren’t schools with high COVID rates masking?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Why aren’t schools with high COVID rates masking? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Because most people have already had it.  Because vaccines have been available to almost all age groups for a long, long time now.  Because it’s generally mild for most people, particularly those who are vaccinated.

Perhaps most important, because we need to maintain some capital for requiring masks in the future if a variant emerges that is more harmful to children than this variant.  It’s been over two years of disruption.  It’s been, what, two months of kids being able to forego masks?  Even here, most people don’t have the appetite for restrictions anymore, given the current conditions.

Masking in school reduces some transmission, but thinking that they’re incredibly effective is misinformed.  [/quote]

Please show me evidence for your last statement. [/quote]

Please show me evidence that they ARE highly effective in K-12 school settings.  The burden of proof is on the intervention.

OP, I understand that you're upset, but denigrating people doesn't help.  And, as someone pointed out, the school with the highest COVID rate *is* masking.  If you're hoping for a return to MCPS-wide mask mandates, you're unlikely to get one now.[/quote]

Sure, here you go.

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/mask-mandates-cut-covid-19-spread-in-schools-studies-find/2022/03

I’m not some pro mask hack - I hate wearing a KN95 as much as the next person - but the Pediatrics Duke study shows that schools with universal masking had nearly 90 percent lower infection rates. That seems pretty convincing. 
[/quote]

Thanks - I hadn't seen that one before.  It's one study, of course, and there are others that don't have results as convincing.  Plenty of kids got Omicron during January 2022 here, and we had a mask mandate in place, so there's also that.

Again, the larger point about maintaining political capital for future restrictions is important here.  There are many, many people, even in MoCo, who no longer support universal mask mandates.  If you want them to cooperate in the future, you can't push them too hard now.  Does it suck for some people?  Yes.  Might it suck even harder in the future if we push mask mandates again now, and people refuse to cooperate with other public health measures?  Also yes.

I mean, if MCPS had reopened in-person, or at least *offered* the option back in September 2021, they would have gained some capital with parents who wanted in-person.  But they didn't, and partially because of that decision (among others), here we are. [/quote]

Here’s where I come out: assuming the choice is get covid/my kids get covid or wear a n-95 7 hours a day for years I would get covid. Every time. I would get it twice a year if that was the choice. So there isn’t any data on mask effectiveness that could sway me. I am happy to assume they are 100% effective. I’m still not depriving my kids of fresh air and a normal childhood. And for the record we have not masked anywhere since the mandates lifted and have not gotten covid so this idea that you’ll get it more than once or twice a year seems wrong. [/quote]

Your children's only access to fresh air comes during the school day? Wow.[/quote]

If her kids are in before school care, school, after school care and don't get home till 6-7 she has bigger issues than fresh air.  Poor kids.  They see their parents maybe an  hour or two a  day and know they aren't really wanted.[/quote]

This is why your crowd (the restriction/mandate crowd) isn't taken seriously.  You think that because you have a WFH/SAHM situation, everybody else should just suck it up and align with you. Your crowd has been a bunch of selfish clowns from day one. And thankfully, leadership has finally tuned you out. Which is why we have all the whining and wailing on this board now.[/quote]

FFS, can we please stop lumping WFH and SAH together?  Please?  Those of us who work from home are WORKING (except when they take days off).  The WFH families we know, ours included, do use before and/or aftercare because, again, we're WORKING and no, we can't all magically stagger our hours every day to fit neatly in the six hour box MCPS grants us, never mind the random days off, half days, etc.  Jesus, people.[/quote]

Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. WFH had it "slightly" easier last year because at least the childcare was technically covered, but the educational experience was still a complete disaster because of the need to focus on work.[/quote]

Well it was also a complete disaster because staring at a screen for hours per day is not effective way to learn for many kids (or even advised),[/quote]

With the right supports, it absolutely can work.[/quote]

Before the pandemic, it was widely advised that kids be limited to 2hrs screentime per day.  Is that no longer a thing?  [/quote]

School is  not exactly screen time and lets be real, most kids when they are older do far more than that a day. And, they all have computers in MCPS schools so you are kidding yourself to think your kids are not on the computer all day at school.[/quote]

I’m an elementary teacher (and I have a DC at a different ES).  My class is not in the computer all day. More than 10 years ago? Absolutely. But nothing like virtual learning.  I’m guessing you have high schoolers if you think virtual was NBD.  It was terrible for ES.[/quote]

We did it in es and it was no big deal.  Covid was a blessing for one child as the school year was a waste with multiple long term subs and then a bad teacher.  We basically had to homeschool the entire year.   [/quote]

So did you homeschool or participate in MCPS virtual with your horrible teacher? I’m confused. Your writing skills are poor.[/quote]

We did both.  Your writing skills are pretty bad too.  [/quote]

DP- you thought virtual for ES was no big deal despite having to homeschool concurrently? You don’t see how to others that would be a “big deal?”  [/quote

Yes, it’s not a big deal.  We are still in virtual so clearly I have no issue with it.   In person prevovid with a bad teacher was far worse.   [/quote]

Then why are you obsessed with the kids who attend in person masking again? Weird.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics