Anonymous wrote:Our governor has been very clear that schools will be open 5 days per week for in person instruction. I’m so glad. Remote school sent a terrible message to my challenging 11 year old.

I’m a teacher, so you can save your bashing. I know why virtual doesn’t work for all kids.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

There isn’t much of a choice. The alternative to in-person school isn’t an acceptable option. I am very concerned.

I’m a teacher and parent. This is an impossible situation because there’s no distance now with a more transmissible variant AND there’s simply no way anyone, families, kids, teachers, can sustain another year of hybrid or distance or whatever. I’ve accepted the best we can do is have us all masked, white knuckle our way to under 12 vaccines, and make peace with the fact this does mean a lot more kids will get covid although hopefully they do not have a rough experience with it.

So when teachers/staff were at higher risk we completely shut down, socially distance and have a layered approach? Now that kids are at higher risk (due to no vaccines) we simply white knuckle and throw on useless cloth masks?

Nope. Not for my child. If FCPS does not step up and provide an actual plan with the new Delta variant to keep my child reasonably safe, I'm not sending her. The Delta variant changes everything and FCPS and the school board are pretending that it doesn't exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

There isn’t much of a choice. The alternative to in-person school isn’t an acceptable option. I am very concerned.

I’m a teacher and parent. This is an impossible situation because there’s no distance now with a more transmissible variant AND there’s simply no way anyone, families, kids, teachers, can sustain another year of hybrid or distance or whatever. I’ve accepted the best we can do is have us all masked, white knuckle our way to under 12 vaccines, and make peace with the fact this does mean a lot more kids will get covid although hopefully they do not have a rough experience with it.

So when teachers/staff were at higher risk we completely shut down, socially distance and have a layered approach? Now that kids are at higher risk (due to no vaccines) we simply white knuckle and throw on useless cloth masks?

Nope. Not for my child. If FCPS does not step up and provide an actual plan with the new Delta variant to keep my child reasonably safe, I'm not sending her. The Delta variant changes everything and FCPS and the school board are pretending that it doesn't exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

There isn’t much of a choice. The alternative to in-person school isn’t an acceptable option. I am very concerned.

I’m a teacher and parent. This is an impossible situation because there’s no distance now with a more transmissible variant AND there’s simply no way anyone, families, kids, teachers, can sustain another year of hybrid or distance or whatever. I’ve accepted the best we can do is have us all masked, white knuckle our way to under 12 vaccines, and make peace with the fact this does mean a lot more kids will get covid although hopefully they do not have a rough experience with it.

So when teachers/staff were at higher risk we completely shut down, socially distance and have a layered approach? Now that kids are at higher risk (due to no vaccines) we simply white knuckle and throw on useless cloth masks?

Nope. Not for my child. If FCPS does not step up and provide an actual plan with the new Delta variant to keep my child reasonably safe, I'm not sending her. The Delta variant changes everything and FCPS and the school board are pretending that it doesn't exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

There isn’t much of a choice. The alternative to in-person school isn’t an acceptable option. I am very concerned.

I’m a teacher and parent. This is an impossible situation because there’s no distance now with a more transmissible variant AND there’s simply no way anyone, families, kids, teachers, can sustain another year of hybrid or distance or whatever. I’ve accepted the best we can do is have us all masked, white knuckle our way to under 12 vaccines, and make peace with the fact this does mean a lot more kids will get covid although hopefully they do not have a rough experience with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

There isn’t much of a choice. The alternative to in-person school isn’t an acceptable option. I am very concerned.

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Anonymous wrote:This is scary: https://www.houstonpress.com/news/at-texas-childrens-some-kids-with-covid-need-ventilators-11610665

This is not good. From my memory, the hospitaliztion rate used to be 1%. How is it now 10%???

Currently, roughly 10 percent of those children who test positive do require hospitalization,” said Dr. Jim Versalovic, Pathologist-in-Chief and Interim Pediatrician-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, “and roughly one-third of those may require critical care.”

Is that of all kids testing positive, or a subset?

Might be a different denominator, right?

I wonder if this is a result of hospitals' testing all patients. So the kids are positive for COVID, and require hospitalization, but not because of the COVID.

No, read the article, that is not what it says. These are ones that show up to the hospital and are concerned that they have COVID. So, they probably are quite symptomatic. We still get a test for every runny nose, but we don't go to the hospital for that.

"Out of all the kids who show up to Texas Children’s concerned they may have COVID-19, “Currently, roughly 10 percent of those children who test positive do require hospitalization,” "

Anonymous wrote:Stop blaming teachers. They are one individual in a classroom of 25-30 kids. Parents will send their kids in sick. Covid will be present in schools. If you choose to send yours back in person you know the risks.

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Anonymous wrote:There will be no school closures in the DMV. There is just no stomach for it, especially when the cost far outweighs the risk.

+1 fear porn. There is no appetite to close unless democrats never want to hold an elected office in Virginia this year. Closing schools was an utter disaster for poor and minorities we're not doing that again.

Ironic that democrats are associated with “closing schools” when it’s the republican party who is to blame for this whole clusterfudge of a pandemic as well as creating all kinds of mixed messaging on vaccines that allow this stupid problem to continue! No one is going to close schools, but if children start dying because of the Delta variant, that’s the fault of irresponsible Republicans.

All those places that have Delta outbreaks - Israel, Britain, France, S Korea, etc - are they run by irresponsible Republicans? They don’t have “mixed messages” about vaccines. Maybe you need to come to terms with the fact that no political party is to blame for a pandemic and no political party anywhere is very good at controlling it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be no school closures in the DMV. There is just no stomach for it, especially when the cost far outweighs the risk.

+1 fear porn. There is no appetite to close unless democrats never want to hold an elected office in Virginia this year. Closing schools was an utter disaster for poor and minorities we're not doing that again.

Ironic that democrats are associated with “closing schools” when it’s the republican party who is to blame for this whole clusterfudge of a pandemic as well as creating all kinds of mixed messaging on vaccines that allow this stupid problem to continue! No one is going to close schools, but if children start dying because of the Delta variant, that’s the fault of irresponsible Republicans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be no school closures in the DMV. There is just no stomach for it, especially when the cost far outweighs the risk.

+1 fear porn. There is no appetite to close unless democrats never want to hold an elected office in Virginia this year. Closing schools was an utter disaster for poor and minorities we're not doing that again.

And don’t forget the special needs kids, especially the ones that were not able to participate in virtual instruction. They essentially missed an entire year of schooling.

And no one in power cared last year. What's changed?

We have the vaccine, but the folks who are unvaccinated are fueling variants that put stress on what was once a much more “bulletproof” shield; with the Delta variant, it seems it might be more like protective padding.

As a HS teacher, I think all staff and faculty should be required to get vaccinated (of course those with medical excuses would be exempt). We should also encourage all students 12 and over to get vaccinated and hold vaccine drives at the school. I am worried for the little ones who can’t yet get vaccinated, so making sure everyone else around them is vaccinated will help. Unfortunately, we are going to have to do indoor masking yet again… it sucks, I know, but I want to keep the FFX county kids safe.