Fall School

[DennisinMH]

Well, here's another perspective, from an actual teacher. My older daughter who teaches High School Spanish.

She prefers and hopes that her district will return to in-school sessions. During the spring, with the e-learning mechanism, she saw a lot less participation from her students. Some never did their work she assigned, despite emails, phone calls to parents.

She feels the students need to be back in school learning in a classroom vs. trying to learn at home, or deciding to be on their tablet/laptop/phone/streaming TV all day instead. (Last part of sentence my words, not hers)

[AV8R]

Refreshing to hear from someone involved who cares about the education of our youth rather than just pushing a false narrative.

[LovelyRita]

Questions for School Openings:

• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?

• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?

• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids' families need to get tested? Who pays for that?

• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?

• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?

• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?

• What if a student in your kid's class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?

• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?

• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?

• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?

30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65.

We are choosing to put our teachers and children in danger.

[Whit]

I just hope AngryRita stays home for a long fucking time! For the love of the planet, do me a favor, shut off your internet, self isolate and stay safe!

[RPlant]

You don't. More children have died due to school shootings than COVID-19. Statistically, children are more likely to be killed by a gunman than COVID-19. Taking children out of school isn't the answer.

Let's compare those stats next Spring.

Why wait until spring?
“Ac­cord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion, 30 chil­dren un­der age 15 have died from Covid-19. In a typ­i­cal year 190 chil­dren die of the flu, 436 from sui­cide, 625 from homi­cide, and 4,114 from un­in­ten­tional deaths such as drown­ing.
Only two chil­dren un­der age 18 have died in Chicago—fewer than were killed in shoot­ings in a re­cent week­end. In New York City, 0.03% of chil­dren un­der age 18 have been hos­pi­tal­ized for Covid and 7.5 in one mil­lion have died. The death rate for those over 75 is more than 2,200-times higher than for those un­der 18.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-f ... yURL_share

Last I checked, schools were closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak this Spring. Show me a year with them re-opened and we can compare apples to apples.

[DennisinMH]

Despite what folks here think about Lovely Rita, she does make some very valid points. But I'm sure Schools that plan on in-person classes are already planning contingency plans in case of positive tests of staff, teachers and students.

[RPlant]

... We are choosing to put our teachers and children in danger.

NY Gov. Cuomo says it best, "Been there, done that." (2 minutes in)

[DennisinMH]

FWIW, here's what's happening with Peoria Public Schools so far, in registration:

https://www.1470wmbd.com/2020/07/13/ear ... -learning/

[kevwr1962]

Despite what folks here think about Lovely Rita, she does make some very valid points. But I'm sure Schools that plan on in-person classes are already planning contingency plans in case of positive tests of staff, teachers and students.

Dennis: Folks may think about and respond differently to her if she presented herself in a friendlier fashion, but according to her, we're supposed to deal with her being crass because this is an internet forum. So, folks are dealing with her in their own ways. But she does have some valid points and I can think of others.

[LovelyRita]

Why are men always telling women to "be happier" and "smile"? It's so patronizing. I'm not surprised, there seem to be a lot of men who post on this board who enjoy the patriarchy. Not me.

ANYWAY....... a football player in Dunlap is positive. I predict about 10 days until in person school is discarded. No reason not to wait until 2021.