I am usually the last person to say anything like this (my views on education policy normally do not support this type of governmental policy), but this is the grand exception. Since the beginning of the nightmare a global pandemic known as COVID-19, coronavirus, etc, our lives have been screwed over indefinitely affected in countless ways. Plans cancelled, jobs lost, and people getting infected -and in some cases- dying from the coronavirus. As of writing this piece:
This is for the United States, and since this piece is solely speaking about the 2020-2021 school year in the United States.
Here's how one can get the coronavirus, according to the CDC:
The incubation period:
To be fair, it's basic, but it works.
Why the schools should remain closed*:
*Indicates that this is negotiable, depending on the circumstances.
The schools closed in mid-March, 2020, and the rest of the school year was a lame duck period for us Chad superior graduates, and for the lesser class of 2021 new seniors, they were -and will be- subject to this nightmare, and unlike us, they don't get a senior year. We got the last laugh, my friends ;). The schools never re-opened. We did have a virtual graduation (where one of the super-intendents made a fool of himself, and the captions for our graduation had the spelling quality of a water damaged microphone. After that, we moved on with our lives.
But, for the remaining classes of future graduates, they are still imprisioned not so lucky. They are having to deal with the debate of opening or closing the schools. And unless there is stringent safety requirements, then the schools should remain closed. Those requirements are:
1. Masks.
2. Social distancing.
3. Proper hygiene. (I should not even have to include this, but humans are frustrating, hence why I am writing this right now).
The masks have an exception, which is if there is a mental/physical health issue that makes wearing a mask a no go, and here's an article about who is exempt from wearing a mask. As for social distancing, there is almost no phyiscal health concern that makes it impossible to do. Now, I have previous stated (click here) that I oppose legally mandating that the populous at large wear masks, or social distance, but that they should choose to do so, and it in no way contradicts this, because you have the right to remove your child from the schools if they mandate the masks, social distancing, and hygienic requirements (which will make our noses suffer less), and you have the right to go with the choice of private schools, or home schools, and this piece will only apply to public schools. But if we are going to re-open schools, then out of consideration for the teachers (who already have a thankless job) and students (who already have a mountain of homework), let's make safety a priority. I know this comes of as "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!", but there is the caveat (the exemption) I already mentioned. And these safety requirements can be overriden, by removing your kid from the school that enacts these requirements, if you do not approve of them.
Bathroom policies will need to be revised, to limit the number of individuals in a restroom at the same time. (Side note, even without a pandemic, this should be a no-brainer). How to ensure that lunch rooms, are safe, as well as the food as well. Keep in mind, grocery stores have now put everything behind a door or glass, so salad bars are more of a thing in the past than my old debate team's plan to go to state.
The Input From Others:
I have a few quotes from students, parents, and teachers who oppose the re-opening of the schools. None of them have been altered by me, these are their exact words, and this is how they truly feel:
My fellow political junkie dear friend, Annabell:
"Corona has my mom working from home now. She's a night worker so she's not too upset about it.
We work at the same place though, and I still have to go in the building to work.
Everyone wears masks and constantly cleans
Everytime someone is diagnosed with covid we're shut down(bad because its the irs and we're WAYYYY fucking behind on work)
Because of that we're now able to work double shifts, and with two jobs doing double shifts because of the inability for most to do work
Its pretty wack"
Another fellow memester great friend, Indavady:
"It really has changed a lot, I haven't been able to hug or play with my little brother for a week now, our quarantine ends this Saturday. He hasn't been able to go outside to the park to play with other kids. At the house, we wear masks and my mom stays in her room all day. I usually bring her food and stuff. My little brother sleeps in a separate room away from my dad and it's a little scary for him cause he's just a kid. The three of us who tested negative have taken over household chores and stuff. I've had to schedule multiple appointments for my mom. I also file for her unemployment every week.
"This process has been very hard because my mom doesn't speak English very well and I don't speak Lao very well. Where ever my dad can't translate, I have to and it always doesn't get across properly. It's hard to describe to someone that they need to take their meds and let us know if anything happens when you can't communicate. Another note, how are we going to spread the classes out when there's already a limited amount of classrooms available?"
By the way, blaming Asians for the coronavirus, or tying them to it, is a racist lie (I haven't written a blog about that, but I will if this is a challenged statement).
Here's a statement made by a former classmater and great friend, who wished to remain anonymous:
"COVID affected me by taking away my support system. At home, I have support, but its a lot more stressful and turbulent compared to my support system at school.
"I don’t support the reopening. I think it’s futile and will end up costing people their lives. I think online school is how they should start the school year, and they can always reopen if the # of cases drops down to below 250 (in Utah) or a vaccine is developed to deal with COVID. School shouldn’t be a place where you might die, it should be a safe place, and if people need to wait longer for school to be safe, so be it."
Here's a concerned parent (who requested to remain anonymous):
"Every class needs to be offered virtually.
"I called and spoke to 2 of the 3 principals my children will have this year, and was disappointed with the current district plans and policies.
"The plan spoke of online a days and in school b days for secondary schools, but in action, they want students who wish to stay home and attend virtually, to be a part of a different online school they are creating. The online option for middle school has no honors class options.
"The plan for lunch sand transition periods is to put tape on the floor to keep students in the right lane. If one student gets Covid-19, the plan is to do Covid tracing, but how do you account for each student they pass on their way to class?
"I appreciate how my students are being offered a dedicated device but, I’m not ok with only two masks per student!"
Read further:
When I asked my awesome former teacher, Dirk Barber, the following questions:
1. "How has COVID affected your job?"
2. "Where do you stand on the school re-openings?"
He answered:
"1) Covid has affected my job in a variety of different ways. First of all I think most teachers go in to the profession to work specifically with young adults or kids and have a lasting impact on their lives. This was almost impossible to do with distance learning. I know I had very little engagement from students 4th term and I honestly don’t feel like I had a meaningful conversation or was able to truly have an impact on students lives during that time. Moving forward this summer has been filled with a ton of anxiety an uneasiness not knowing what this fall will look like. As a fairly healthy individual not in the “high risk” zone I’m not necessarily worried about myself getting Covid but I am worried about getting it and being around my parents and my in laws who are getting older and are in that zone. That’s my biggest fear at the moment about covid."
"2) I’m torn. I understand the need for young adults to go back to school for all of the social and emotional benefits that come from in person learning, connecting, and interacting with people. I do worry that we are coming back without enough knowledge of the virus and how it will spread in large groups. I feel like coming back to school in the fall there is a possibility of us coming back, cases spiking and we are right back to where we were with distance learning and very little professional development on how to be successful as teachers with online learning. I feel like there are so many unanswered questions at this time for teachers and staff and I hope we get the answers before returning next month. I fully trust the leadership of Ogden School District and their care and concern for staff. I realize that these are unprecedented times and they are working their hardest to ensure safety and that a lot of the questions and concerns we really just can’t have an answer for at this time."
Here's another teacher (who requested to remain anonymous, but is an amazing teacher), who does not support re-opening.
1. How has COVID-19 affected your job (if you're a teacher), or your schedule (if you're a student, or parent)?
"Until spring 2020, I had never experienced a worldwide pandemic as an individual, let alone as a teacher.
"Neither had anyone else experienced a pandemic, and so last spring was what I like to think of as “The Spring of Crises” -- Crisis Teaching, Crisis Parenting, and Crisis Adolescence. I have been fortunate to be in possession of multiple items and circumstances that enabled me to semi-easily adapt to teaching from home. I had access to a computer and reliable and quality internet access (re: good enough to conduct Zoom videos). This was not always the case for my fellow teachers, let alone for many of my students. Additionally, I don’t have any young children that require child care during my typical hours of work.
"On the surface, these factors enabled me to adapt to Distance Learning with relative ease. However, anyone else who is also a teacher will clearly tell you that Distance or Online Learning is not as simple as “copying and pasting” curriculum that is taught in a traditional physical classroom into a Distance/Online Learning format.
"As COVID-19 shut down California, and I began teaching from home, I went from walking an average of 13,000 steps a day to 1,500 steps a day due to sitting at my desk all day.
"I went from seeing and interacting with 90% of my students everyday, to interacting with only 20% everyday.
"I went from balancing my curriculum with technology and traditional pencil/paper/book for my students, to asking them to spend hour upon hour sitting in a chair with their eyes glued to a screen.
"I went from being able to check up on my most vulnerable, and at-risk students multiple times a week to not being able to contact them at all for the final 6 weeks of the school year.
"I went from analyzing authentic student learning data weekly, to multiple cheating and plagiarism emails daily.
"I had students who were successful average kids (B/C grades), drop off the face of earth and nearly fail my class.
"I had students who were struggling in school suddenly surge to previously unseen levels of success.
"I had students who struggled with depression on a good day, who I could ordinarily support in my class, or by sending them to their counselor, plummet to suicidal ideations within the first week of Distance Learning.
"I went from a typical stress level as a teacher, to feeling like I was failing my students.
2. Why do you support (or oppose) re-opening?
"I don’t currently support reopening.
"Granted, as a teacher in California instead of Utah, our infection numbers are vastly different, but there is no way that in-person school is currently safe for BOTH our students and our teachers, admin, and other support staff like instructional assistants, secretaries, janitorial & grounds staff, bus drivers, food services employees and additional educational support staff I missed listing. I already risk my life when it comes to my exposure to school shootings -- I will NOT offer apologies for refusing to risk my life in the midst of a pandemic simply to teach in-person.
"There is literally nothing about a worldwide pandemic that is convenient or comfortable. Even more inconvenient and uncomfortable though, are the deaths of people we love."
Some more testimony of how the pandemic has affected students, and teachers.
Understanding The Other Side.
I was unable to find any "pro re-opening", so I looked for anything that gave the other side a voice, and I found it from the most expected source: The Vice President of the United States, Mike "Can't be alone with a woman who isn't my wife" Pence.
“Opening up our schools again is the best thing for our kids," he said. "It’s also the best thing for working families and it's the best thing to move America forward."
Is it, though? It could be if there is a consistent safety protocol that each school can adapt to, to keep everyone there safe. Herd immunity faces a lot of challenges, and there will be those who will not build up immunity to this, but could very well die or suffer in agony from this.
The White House has been urging K-12 and higher education institutions to reopen for in-person instruction, with President Donald Trump going so far as to call for the withholding of federal funds for those that don’t reopen. He also recently accused schools of “radical left indoctrination” and called for an examination into their tax-exempt status. Pretty rich for a guy who refuses to release his tax returns.
During a visit to South Carolina on Tuesday, Pence said he "wouldn't hesitate" to send his own children back to the classroom if they were still school-aged, despite the rise in coronavirus cases in many parts of the country. I would then proceed to ask the Vice President: Would you have them wear a mask? If not, that's up to them, and if they don't, good luck.
"We know to open up America again we need to open up America’s schools, but it’s also right on the facts," Pence said during a discussion with state leaders about reopening.
Do you, though? Because when states started opening back up, cases spiked. And I understand that people are sick and tired of the quarantine, social distancing, masks, etc, but COVID-19 does not go away just because we want it to. And like I said before, and I'll say it again, I would not mandate that you keep yourself safe, but that I hope you would want to keep yourself safe. And remember, it's not just you. It's not just me. But other people can and will be affected by your choices, as well as mine.
Before I go, I'll describe how COVID-19 has affected me:
When COVID-19 first started, I didn't take it seriously. I thought of it being no more serious than "the flu". But when the number of deaths and hospitalizations increased dramatically, I started taking it seriously. When it caused the cancellation of a much anticipated state tournament, and then caused the school year to be cancelled, I knew this was rather serious. And when people I knew were considered "essential workers", and had to go into work, and were not informed about who may have COVID-19, and I saw the stress they went through, especially when an Earthquake hit rather hard, and their safety was challenged.
And when a former teacher of mine died from COVID-19, it now put a face on this pandemic for me, and now it really hit close to home. And it served as a reminder to me and everyone else, that life is not a guarantee, and that none of us are invincible from COVID-19. I attended her viewing with some friends, and I realized she was only a few months older than my own father. Me and my fellow former classmates all understand that this pandemic sucks, and we know how much we want to go back to living our normal lives, and that's why we say thus far: do not re-open the schools. A temporary gain will not mean much in the long run.
Follow my (great) Twitter: @SkylerSatterfi1
Follow Annabell's Twitter: @Honey_W_Bee
Follow Indavady's Twitter: @_uwuspecialist_
P.S: You will never see those three cursed letters from Indavady's Twitter ever again on here. Shudders
If y'all use the comment section of this blog, keep those letters away ;).
Chao.
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