Anonymous wrote:The political reality is that once businesses start opening back up, the pressure on schools to reopen as well will become inexorable.

We're not going to be in a place where all the stores are open but the schools remain closed. That just isn't going to happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Grocery store workers don't have powerful unions. Neither do nurses. Neither do bus drivers. Teachers do. That's why politicians don't even want to discuss this. They know teachers don't want to go back to work in the fall, and they don't want a big fight with teachers' unions.

PP, you really need to start paying more attention to current affairs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG enough with the schools. We know you don't want to watch your kids -- too bad.

Construction workers are not packed into a 12-foot room with 25 other students for 8 hour days.

They are outside, spread out, often the solo person manning heavy machinery.

Its actually safer to be on a construction crew breathing fresh air than the recycled air classrooms with 3,000 coughing students in the same building.

+1000 Jesus Christ, people. We’re sorry that you had kids you can’t deal with being around 24 hours a day, but we’re not going to send little Petri dishes to school just so you can get a break from them and then unleash them on to the rest of society. We all know half of you aren’t keeping your kids quarantined anyways and the other half would sue the school system and government to kingdom come if your kid got it at school anyways so there’s no point. I cannot believe the selfishness of the parents that continue to spout on about schools and pools reopening despite common sense.

the point is - why are indoor restaurants and construction allowed to happen before school does? what about parents who can't work due to child care?

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the issue here is that a lot of us believe school is significantly more important and more essential than a lot of other businesses that are reopening. The order isn't driven solely by safety/risk, but also value to society. We didn't see hospitals and public transit completely shut down even though they're some of the highest risk environments - we need them too much. Instead there was a lot of triage, search for PPE, changed schedules and locations, and basically attempting to find strategies to make them safer.

I agree with the OP of this thread. It's not that i don't care about child or teacher safety. It's that it's really stunning that we're not seeing massive energy and political will put toward figuring out strategies to reopen schools as safely as possible. Schools seem like kind of an afterthought compared to a bunch of inarguably nonessential (nice, and employing people, but nonessential) businesses opening as quickly as possible. It's not to say schools should open first, it's that we should be discussing them with as much urgency as metro and medical facilities, and we're just NOT.

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the issue here is that a lot of us believe school is significantly more important and more essential than a lot of other businesses that are reopening. The order isn't driven solely by safety/risk, but also value to society. We didn't see hospitals and public transit completely shut down even though they're some of the highest risk environments - we need them too much. Instead there was a lot of triage, search for PPE, changed schedules and locations, and basically attempting to find strategies to make them safer.

I agree with the OP of this thread. It's not that i don't care about child or teacher safety. It's that it's really stunning that we're not seeing massive energy and political will put toward figuring out strategies to reopen schools as safely as possible. Schools seem like kind of an afterthought compared to a bunch of inarguably nonessential (nice, and employing people, but nonessential) businesses opening as quickly as possible. It's not to say schools should open first, it's that we should be discussing them with as much urgency as metro and medical facilities, and we're just NOT.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems that the main argument for not opening schools is that students, who are generally not at risk from coronavirus, could spread the virus to vulnerable teachers, bus drivers, and family members at home. So schools remain closed and our children suffer major negative effects. Why was construction never halted around this entire city, and it is allowed to continue in Stage 1 unabated. Everyone of those construction workers are much more likely--we know adults carry a larger viral load than children--to everyone they come in contact with: their children, aging parents, spouses, public transportation drivers, the 5 to 6 other people they travel to their jobs in cars with. How can DC prioritize construction over children?

All the modern pandemics take off when the school are open. It’s the same for the flu. Schools are a major vector of transmission.

Anonymous wrote:

Grocery store workers don't have powerful unions. Neither do nurses. Neither do bus drivers. Teachers do. That's why politicians don't even want to discuss this. They know teachers don't want to go back to work in the fall, and they don't want a big fight with teachers' unions.

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the issue here is that a lot of us believe school is significantly more important and more essential than a lot of other businesses that are reopening. The order isn't driven solely by safety/risk, but also value to society. We didn't see hospitals and public transit completely shut down even though they're some of the highest risk environments - we need them too much. Instead there was a lot of triage, search for PPE, changed schedules and locations, and basically attempting to find strategies to make them safer.

I agree with the OP of this thread. It's not that i don't care about child or teacher safety. It's that it's really stunning that we're not seeing massive energy and political will put toward figuring out strategies to reopen schools as safely as possible. Schools seem like kind of an afterthought compared to a bunch of inarguably nonessential (nice, and employing people, but nonessential) businesses opening as quickly as possible. It's not to say schools should open first, it's that we should be discussing them with as much urgency as metro and medical facilities, and we're just NOT.

Anonymous wrote:It’s really not a reopen dc plan. It’s a bankrupt all small businesses while leaving a generation uneducated plan.

Anonymous wrote:Very few schools have anything even approaching 2000 students.