Schools Should Not Open

Whether we like it or not – 2020 is a wrap. It has been a very bad year. COVID-19 has brought havoc to us all. The uncertainty is unreal and unpredictable. As we countdown the days approaching November’s presidential election, the focus and energy will be directed on the politics of the season. The political science might just go out of the window as COVID-19 and school re-openings, are being questioned by the powerful ones.

This is not the time to open up the public schools. It is too risky. Having taught in schools, I must tell you that annually you pretty much can count on a classroom teacher getting a cold in the wintertime. The teacher gets the cold from the students; the students pass it to each other and the students take it home and on and on. The younger the student classrooms are the more likely students will be infected. The coronavirus promises the same with severity. Teachers and students need not take the risk.

Younger students are not the tidiest or most hygienic. The mask is hard to keep on, even for adults. Sometimes little ones don’t wash their hands because they hurry to get back to playtime. Students might challenge the restriction, because they are at the age of challenge. The lunchroom isn’t the cleanest place and it’s almost impossible for one teacher to keep the rooms sanitized. And the group bathroom is at best challenging as everybody goes to his or her private stall. I have talked to many teachers and administrators with children ready for school next month and they all say “NO.”

It is difficult and hard to keep your children at home and zoom learning is questionable. Hopefully the pandemic makes us realize and appreciate teachers as a profession even more. Teaching is a real profession. It takes patience and time to teach. It requires patience, dedication and sensitivity. It is what teachers do, it is not necessarily what parents and grandparents and big brothers and sisters do. Children in school, including college, will miss out in the year 2020 until we can back to normalcy. The college student has the best chance because he is best able to receive the zoom lesson. There is nothing like student teacher stimulating exchange. The classroom is missed.

It is a sad commentary for students at this time, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. It would be a horrible situation if students and teachers contracted the virus from each other, creating a school epidemic. We cannot ask teachers and students to put their lives on the line like that. Teachers sometimes may become very possessive with their students. Students become “my kids.” But teachers should not be requested to risk their lives to teach.

Need proof? Take a look at the summer camp in Georgia where the strictest of rules were applied to include physical social distancing, cloth masks and washing hands. Out of 597 attendees, 76 percent of the young campers tested positive. The reports claim that it was inevitable that the students would spread coronavirus. The transmission was within a week as they followed the guidelines. The Georgia campers might have gotten COVID from singing and cheering. In another instance in Arizona, one teacher died and two more were infected after sharing a classroom to hold online classes.

It’s a guessing game for the medical community as they try and determine who contracts the virus and who doesn’t. At first it was older people, now it is youth-centric and it has been high risks for those who have underlining physical conditions. The truth is everybody can get COVID-19 no matter your age, race, sex, profession or address. COVID-19 is contagious and is easily transmitted. If you can catch a cold you can catch the virus. Some people have gotten COVID-19 from the doctor’s office or the hospital. It is the disease of discovery, with no cure. It is a disease where the medical community is still speculating. But what we do know for sure is there is no vaccine, or pill that cures. It’s a much-needed work in progress.

The governors and mayors are facing problematic decisions to or not to open schools. Funding is on the line, as funding is based on headcount attendance. Parents are troubled because most have to return to the workplace. But the alternative of death is a reality. It only takes a student or teacher for the entire class to be threatened with the virus. And then the student’s household and the teacher’s household are also threatened. It is a dangerous proposition to have the schools open at this time.

Teachers are now requested to be nurses as they will be ask to sanitize classrooms, take temperatures and check masks. This is a hard job, even with limited classrooms.

The medics with their science are predicting that this winter will bring on another strain of the virus in addition to the regular flu season. This might prove to be a fatal combination and whether we like it or not, sick to deadly. In some states, the virus is on the rise, the schools will remain close like Los Angeles.

The politicians can declare what they want. The unions can protest and argue the point, but ultimately the decision rests with parents and the teachers.

I vote to keep the schools close, its too dangerous. God bless us all as we live through this pandemic.