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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When covid first appeared someone used an image of water lilies in a pond multiplying to visualize exponential growth. I am a visual person. That image worked to me. A few cases here and there, no big deal. But as they beget more, suddenly the lake is full. The point here is, things are normal *now.* They may not stay that way.

Or, they may, for your child and your family.

But the real cost of that lies beneath the water, in places you can't see. It lies with people you don't know, will never know. [b]The price of your child's normalcy is surging case rates, hospitals being overwhelmed, and thousands saddled with long-term suffering[/b]. I can't make you believe those people are real. That is something perhaps your own parents, or religion, or conscience should have done long ago.

We all weigh acceptable risk for ourselves and others every day we get in a car, so don't use that old chestnut as a comparison. Covid isn't driving, and omicron isn't delta. When infection rates were much lower our county was doing a good job, even with a lot of people resuming "normal" life. Now, we seem firmly committed to winnowing out the weak, the infirm, the old... Those who should take on the "responsibility" for saving themselves, apparently, even when we don't have the tools for them to do that. And all so Larla's mental health isn't impacted by not being able to run for student body president.

Despite all the purple prose above, I'm not actually a virtual forever person. I am a person who weighs risk to my family and others and makes choices accordingly. At the moment, cases are climbing exponentially at our schools. Based on the examples of other cities (namely New York) we will be where they are soon enough. I don't see the point in putting my kid into that infection chain. It's mostly a matter of conscience, not risk. And I know that seems nuts. Perhaps it is. But I was raised to follow my conscience, even when it tells me what the majority are doing isn't right, and I've tried to live that way through this virus.  Do no harm, is, I think, sometimes the best we can do. [/quote]

Closing schools will do nothing to change anything bolded. It just won't. I understand the desire to *do something,* but I don't understand how anyone still thinks that closing schools will control COVID. It won't. Some of the elderly and disabled will still die, hospitals will face the same burden as if schools were open. All closing schools does is stoke your feeling of moral superiority and the costs are much higher than "not getting to run for class president." [/quote]

Are you denying Covid is spreading in schools? Our child's friend just caught it after being exposed at school both kids masked & vaccinated.  The kids will be fine but what happens to the grandparent who lives in the same house. Having virtual school would have prevented this from happening, multiplying this scenario by hundreds.[/quote]

We have to do district-wide virtual because some kids live with their grandparents?[/quote]

That question is the heart of all this. Do we have to have district wide virtual because some people live with the frail, the elderly, the immunocompromised?
IMO, there has to be a virtual OPTION from here on out, to protect those people, and those families, but for most kids, in-person works better. 
You can't destabilize the entire system requesting virtual because a new variant is on the loose that will not cause great harm to vaccinated healthy people.  We live with practical concerns, like staffing shortages. You know your risk, your own family's health issues; choose accordingly when VA opens up again. [/quote]

The issue is that right now we have crossed the threshold/level of risk that many of people are comfortable with taking.
Many arguing for virtual right now are not those with immunocompromised family members, they already choose the VA.
Instead it's people who don't feel the elevated risk of getting Covid when transmission is high is worth going to school with substitutes and many missing classmates.  The chaos or potential for chaos and the uncertainties-- will my bus driver be out, will my teacher be out, will my friends be there, will I get Covid-- are causing anxiety and unproductive learning environments.  
Many feel that more consistency and certainty could be provided through a few weeks of virtual while the surge passes.  And that at the end of two to three weeks of virtual, students and teachers would be better able to pick up and move forward quickly with less time catching people up and fewer disruptions.[/quote]

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