Anonymous wrote:Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we have all the middle and high schoolers stay home (legal age to stay home alone) and divide up all the elementary students throughout the county's elem/middle/high school facilities?

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Anonymous wrote:Not all universities are closed for the fall. Some are still making plans. Some are having students arrive on campus a few weeks early, and ending the fall semester at Thanksgiving.

Exactly

They'll change their tune. Classes aren't the only thing to worry about. You have high density dorm rooms, and older faculty/staff are more at risk. A single death of a staff person who contracts it from a student will open up the university to massive liability. Wife works at a university. If she contracted the virus from a student and died because the university was stubborn and opened up, I'd sue the pants off of them.

That's ridiculous. No one is forcing her to return to a job. She can choose not to return.

Anonymous wrote:Daycare will be open in the fall probably before. Interestingly Maryland has 2200 daycares open for essential workers since March and only 50 have had to close temporarily due to a case. If daycares are open without outbreaks people will be asking why schools cannot be open with appropriate precautions.

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Anonymous wrote:Not all universities are closed for the fall. Some are still making plans. Some are having students arrive on campus a few weeks early, and ending the fall semester at Thanksgiving.

Exactly

They'll change their tune. Classes aren't the only thing to worry about. You have high density dorm rooms, and older faculty/staff are more at risk. A single death of a staff person who contracts it from a student will open up the university to massive liability. Wife works at a university. If she contracted the virus from a student and died because the university was stubborn and opened up, I'd sue the pants off of them.

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Anonymous wrote:A friend of mine confessed that she doesn’t want schools to resume regular in-school classes because she won’t have the “excuse” (her words) to work from home. She’s actually hoping schools stay closed.

Teacher living down the street basically said the same thing to me the other day; she enjoys working from home which isn’t something she’s been able to do over the course of her teaching career.

I suspect a lot of these people rallying for schools not to open - or floating this idea as fact - are like friend and nieghbor.

Where are the teachers that love teaching and can’t wait for school to start back normally? This forum makes me sad.

Here we go again...I chose to be a teacher so of course I’m not allowed to love myself or my own family enough to want to wait and make sure that school is safe...I’m saddened everyday by the attacks on teachers. This situation is not ideal for any of us. Remote learning is not perfect, but neither is face to face learning at school. My experience with remote teaching has been much better than I ever expected. Students are attending Zoom meetings (and if they miss, we check in with the families). They are asking questions. They are participating. They are doing the work. We are laughing. We are having conversations. Some days we have lunch and recess together virtually. Many students are actually thriving, because they don’t have to deal with distractions from classmates and they aren’t stuck at school all day. We are actually working efficiently. More parents are involved. I believe that if we focus on the positive and actually try to improve the experience, then it will only get better.

I understand that there are concerns about childcare. If we return to school on a rotating schedule, I will have those same concerns, and I don’t have a solution for it right now. However, I am not thrilled about the idea of sending my child back to school either.

So in the meantime, what am I doing? I’m working on a plan B. If we have to return to school in any capacity, I will not return to teaching this year and I will homeschool my child. And Yes, I do NEED an income. So I’m sprucing up my resume, applying for jobs that will allow for telework, and working harder on my side businesses than ever before. This situation has confirmed one thing for me: Never rely on one stream of income. Take control of your life. Don’t wait on somebody else to solve my problems. It’s OK to put myself first because nobody else is going to do that. I suggest that all of you come up with your Plan B as well.

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Anonymous wrote:The sooner people accept this new reality the better. Schools in this area will look very different this fall. Kids will likely only be in the classroom one or two days a week. Smart parents are preparing for this new reality. You will not have school as your childcare. If that doesn’t work for you, it’s time to consider relocating to a more rural part of the US. Or, plan to homeschool.

Which do you prefer, kids staying home by themselves unsafely (or going to work with their parents unsafely), or kids going to school? Those are your choices.

Not really. That may be what some people decide, but others will come up with different solutions. What is clear is that most kids will not be going M-F from 8-3 with before and after care. The sooner everyone accepts this, the better.

Calling this a "decision" suggests that you really have no understanding of what many people are up against. As though people are going to sit around thinking, "Well, I could use good childcare, or I could leave my child at home in danger while I work to keep a roof over our heads. You know what? I think I'll decide to keep my child at home in danger!"

Let’s not pretend this a new issue. Until now, we have been perfectly fine letting the poor and marginalized struggle and slip through the cracks. What did everyone think was going to happen when we completely dismantled any type of safety net?

This is the same poster who talks continually about a lack of safety net in this country, but obviously has no idea about being poor and how much is spent to help the poor. It gets old.

Nope. I have never talked about it here before. But I have spent a lot of time dealing with it. And I am so sick of people suddenly pretending to care about the poor. Really. What did you think was going to happen? That we could have the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and it was going to end well?

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t even know what I want to happen. I’m scared of the impact of losing a quarter of this school year’s in-classroom learning. I can’t imagine how serious the impact would be if we have distance learning for a significant chunk of next school year. It’s a dire situation. At the same time, our schools are too overcrowded to return to school as we knew it. Social distancing would be impossible at secondary schools if all students return. Even if 20% of kids were kept home, I think it would still be difficult to social distance. We’re going to have to choose between 2 bad options. More risk averse people whose kids have always been top students will want schools closed, as long as lack of childcare isn’t a dealbreaker. People who are less risk averse, people whose children are really struggling with online learning and/or with the absence of their usual special services, and people who can’t keep their jobs without childcare will want schools open. Everyone else is probably feeling at least somewhat conflicted.

In other words, most people want schools open. Kids need to go to school.

1) Schools need to be open
2) Having students return to secondary schools is not compatible with social distancing
3) Lack of social distancing could lead to large outbreaks

What is your solution?

That’s my point. There’s no way to have everything we want. We want in-person school. We don’t want big coronavirus outbreaks. What’s the solution for secondary schools?

Except the countries that are opening are seeing that schools are not contributing to large outbreaks. That’s what you’re missing.

How many countries that had massive outbreaks have reopened with as little testing and contact tracing as we have? Hopefully, out testing and contact tracing will be much more robust by late August.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t even know what I want to happen. I’m scared of the impact of losing a quarter of this school year’s in-classroom learning. I can’t imagine how serious the impact would be if we have distance learning for a significant chunk of next school year. It’s a dire situation. At the same time, our schools are too overcrowded to return to school as we knew it. Social distancing would be impossible at secondary schools if all students return. Even if 20% of kids were kept home, I think it would still be difficult to social distance. We’re going to have to choose between 2 bad options. More risk averse people whose kids have always been top students will want schools closed, as long as lack of childcare isn’t a dealbreaker. People who are less risk averse, people whose children are really struggling with online learning and/or with the absence of their usual special services, and people who can’t keep their jobs without childcare will want schools open. Everyone else is probably feeling at least somewhat conflicted.

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Anonymous wrote:Not all universities are closed for the fall. Some are still making plans. Some are having students arrive on campus a few weeks early, and ending the fall semester at Thanksgiving.

Exactly

They'll change their tune. Classes aren't the only thing to worry about. You have high density dorm rooms, and older faculty/staff are more at risk. A single death of a staff person who contracts it from a student will open up the university to massive liability. Wife works at a university. If she contracted the virus from a student and died because the university was stubborn and opened up, I'd sue the pants off of them.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are insane. With the current mortality being about .3%, it does not make sense to shut down until fall 2021. This is madness,, you people have no sense of proportion and the risk that exists every single day you walk out the door and could be killed in hundreds of ways. The seasonal flu last year killed hundreds more children than this virus has.