This Might Not Be Such a Bad Thing
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to surge in the US and elsewhere, some school districts have already opened and others are hot on their heels. And as could easily be predicted, districts in Mississippi and Indiana have already reported positive Covid-19 tests, requiring quarantining, despite precautions. The largest district in Georgia has reported 260 cases amongst staff as they returned to classrooms to prepare for reopening. And a YMCA summer camp recently, despite requiring evidence of negative tests, staff masking, and health screening when the campers arrived, still sparked an outbreak with positive cases numbering in the hundreds. As long as we insist on putting children together in large groups, there will be outbreaks no matter how careful we are.
As things now stand, it looks like more and more schools across the country will be opening in the coming weeks, despite clear evidence the pandemic is nowhere near under control in much of the US, and the common knowledge that schools are always major contributors to the spread of pretty much anything that's going around.
The pressure is on from all sides. In some places, like Arizona, governors are so keen to jump start their economies that they are threatening punitive budget cuts to schools that don't restart in-person instruction in their schools. Families are struggling without the free child care that schools provide while our governments dither over providing the financial relief that out-of-work and furloughed parents need to put CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: This Might Not Be Such a Bad Thing
