To the great minds who’ve decided we should send our kids back to their classrooms during an alarming spike in coronavirus cases, I feel compelled to ask the obvious question:
You’re kidding, right?
Surely, you’re not serious about putting at greater risk the health of our kids, their teachers and, ultimately, the entire community, merely so parents have the daytime childcare they need to go to work and help our pandemic-damaged economy recover.
You’ve seen the infection numbers, which continue to go the wrong way. You’ve heard the experts, who warn that reopening schools during a spike in cases will only increase the spread of the virus.
You must know you’d be recklessly rolling the dice, betting that this latest surge in COVID-19 infections will fade as we move toward next month’s first day of school, gambling with lives and livelihoods.
So, if you’re really going to do this – and we can only hope you’re wise enough to reconsider – there can be only one explanation: You’re feeling lucky.
That’s the only way we’ll get through the academic year without an outbreak disrupting classes, closing schools or worse, despite all the planned safety precautions.
Don’t be surprised, though, if our kids are back to virtual schooling by the time the calendar turns to 2021.
The odds aren’t on our side.
At the moment, there’s no reason to believe this worsening pandemic is about to subside, which means reopening our schools can only make matters worse. Even if we see a decrease in the number of COVID cases, returning kids to the classroom almost certainly will produce another spike.
We can’t rely on kids to conduct themselves as responsible adults.
We can’t expect kids, especially younger kids, to wear masks properly and continue to wear them, especially when the face coverings become uncomfortable.
Likewise, we can’t expect kids to abide by social-distancing requirements and not try to gather in groups for extended periods of time, particularly on school buses, in cafeterias and during physical education classes and recess.
It’s also unrealistic to expect kids to keep their hands perfectly clean, no matter how often they’re reminded to do so.
Water fountains, if not turned off, could pose problems, too.
Resuming school will pose great risk to our teachers, who would be exposed to students for six hours each day, five days per week, for the next several months – until a vaccine becomes available, the academic year concludes or, more likely, an outbreak closes schools again.
According to local School Superintendent David Moore, teachers will be required to wear face shields, which should provide some protection against the virus. As healthcare workers can attest, however, those shields aren’t fail-safe.
At some point, a teacher – and probably more than one – would test positive for COVID-19.
What happens then?
If public health guidelines are followed, as we’re told they will be, the teacher would be required to quarantine for 14 days and test negative twice before being allowed to return to work. But what about the infected teacher’s students?
Would they need to stay home? If so, for how long? Should their parents and other family members also be quarantined? Should any or all of them get tested?
In the reverse scenario: If a student tests positive, should the teacher be required to quarantine? What about other kids who might’ve been exposed to the infected student? Should other teachers who came into contact with the infected student’s teacher also be forced to stay home?
Again, for how long?
If someone in a teacher’s household tests positive, should that teacher self-quarantine to avoid the possibility of bringing the virus to school? If so, would the district allow the teacher to stay home with pay and without repercussions?
Then there’s this potential dumpster fire: When teachers do need to stay home for virus-related reasons, how difficult will it be to find substitutes to work during a pandemic and risk their health for the pay offered?
And what if substitute teachers, who often work in different classrooms in different schools, test positive?
You see where this is going?
You see what you’re doing, forcing parents to choose between putting their kids in harm’s way so they can earn a living, and keeping them home so they won’t become infected and possibly transmit a potentially deadly virus to someone else?
Eventually, we can expect these same parents to face a tougher decision: Do I send my kid to school, knowing one of his or her classmates or teachers has tested positive?
Why put them in that position?
There’s no denying that most kids learn better when they’re in school, where there are fewer distractions and they get more face-to-face interaction with their teachers. They also learn from each other, often through group discussions.
Then there’s the socialization that occurs only on campus, where friendships are formed, and life lessons learned outside the classroom can be as impactful and lasting as anything in the school district’s curriculum.
The price of admission, though, is too high at this time.
Make no mistake: The spread of the COVID-19 isn’t the only potential health concern confronting parents, students and teachers during this pandemic.
Have you thought about how our kids might react if a classmate or teacher gets infected and becomes seriously ill or dies? Or how they’ll feel if they unknowingly bring the virus home to their parents or grandparents and one of them gets sick?
We’ll probably find out.
Just last week, the superintendent said he was expecting nearly 90 percent of students’ parents to embrace the district’s plan to reopen schools for traditional classroom learning.
There’s still a chance, however, that the soaring number of coronavirus cases in Florida will change some minds.
“Before we open our doors on Aug. 10,” Moore said, “we will ensure that is the right thing to do.”
Let’s hope he wasn’t kidding.