Reply to Why are most teachers too scared to return to in person teaching, but most parents want schools open

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You don't know anything about me. I would happily go back to school with PPE, ventilation reports, and proof that all staff and students have been tested for COVID prior to opening. If schools can't or won't put those things in place, then they shouldn't open. Period. [/quote]

Companies have been open for months now without any of that.  Time to grow up and get back to work.[/quote]

I posted this a few weeks ago in another thread, but it bears repeating and it applies here:

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

[i]Many[/i] salaried/professional workers are not back at work, but plenty are.  Those that are have gone back because there jobs can't be done effectively remotely.  Many people would say that teachers, particularly elementary school teachers have jobs that fit into this category.

[b]Some of my job can be done remotely, some can't because we have certain computers and other systems available only in the office.  I have gone in about two days a week to do parts of my job that need that equipment.  We have fewer people in the room than we normally do, but I am not alone in the room.  [/b]

It is not as low risk as working from home, but it is a reasonable risk and I can't do my job from home.  If I didn't go to work, I wouldn't keep my job.  Lots of other professionals like me are in a similar position.  Therefore, it is a little hard to swallow when you argue that anyone who thinks teachers could do the same are simply hostile shrews.[/quote]

Wonderful.  I'm a computer system administrator and I have also had to go into work periodically over the last 4 months.  You have fewer people in the room, but you are not alone.  I would guess that you share office/lab space with fewer than 5 people.  And those people are adults who are probably significantly better at basic health and safety than the typical grade-schooler, tween or teen is.  Your co-workers probably understand the mask requirements and adhere (whether they want to or are only forced to by office requirements and state law).  The students understand, but trying to keep masks on ES students for 3-6 hours is pretty fruitless.  Tweens and teens know that they should keep them on, but many of them will find excuses or are convinced of their own invulnerability that they will make frequent exceptions and they think it is nothing to just take the mask off for a minute or two when there may be peers around, but there are no adults looking.  Same with handwashing and social distancing.

Then you have the issue that while you are expose to your co-workers, there's a good chance that you are expose to the same few co-workers.  Now, imagine that your job required to you to rotate through 6 offices every hour through your day.  And put 12 people in every office.  Now you are exposed to 12 people in each of 6 offices and are exposed to 70+ people.  Assume that each of those people also work in 6 different offices each day and basically if anyone in your office building get infected, they have the chance to expose 5-25% of the building to the virus for 2-4 days before they show any symptoms.  That's what you are asking school teachers to go through daily.

The difference here is that you have a job that cannot be done from home since it requires "hands on work" on equipment that isn't available at home.  You can't say that about teaching.  Teaching can be done remotely and in fact is going to be done remotely by a significant amount of the country.  Just because it won't be the same quality as what your child would get in school, is not the same as saying that teaching is required to be in-person and forcing the teachers to go in.  Most jurisdictions are saying that those people that can work remotely should do so.  And that should also apply to teachers.[/quote]
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