When Covid Subsided, Israel Reopened Its Schools. It Didn’t Go Well.

As countries consider back-to-school strategies for the fall, a coronavirus outbreak at a Jerusalem high school offers a cautionary tale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-schools-reopen.html

This is such a personal and extremely tough topic for me. With young boys, the damage of not attending school is far greater than any COVID risk for my family. I've obviously had to consider the teachers, multi-generational families, and other scenarios, but that is the conclusion I've come to. For example, why should a bus driver be working and not a teacher? Why the nurse and not the teacher? To think that all children (5-18) can learn in an online environment is naive to say the least.

The Unions are driving this decision. If this was truly about going online, they would furlough 90% of the teachers and find 10% who can write and manage the online curriculum for the entire district.

Oh well, there are so many sides to this and I'm sure I'll get crucified ... but whatever. King County has 2.3M people and about 5 (yes, FIVE) are going to the hospital every day for COVID. People are doing a decent job social distancing and masking (which I'm all for), but that just doesn't seem to justify shutting shutting down the education system for kids (especially the young ones).

@2: You shouldn't be crucified as you're providing important perspectives.

Children under the age of five have been found to carry just as much, if not more, coronavirus in their noses and throats than older kids or adults.
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/children-often-carry-more-coronavirus-than-adults-study-67785

It's bad enough we expect teachers to take a bullet and sacrifice themselves in the event of a mass shooting event at a school. Now we're going to straight up expose them, knowingly, to a deadly virus, and just what, hope for the best?

If I were a teacher I would quit my job. Nothing any teacher is getting paid is worth this bullshit. Parents are burned out and can't handle their kids not being able to go to school? How is countless sick and possibly dead teachers going to help you? You'll just be back to square one when the schools are shut down again (or you'll be sick or you'll be dead).

It it truly unbelievable how Trump, his administration, and the GOP have done NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL for the people of this country, left every state twisting in the wind to fend for themselves and takes no and will never take any responsibility for the hundreds of thousands dead and the millions sick in this country.

People think we are fucked now with kids falling behind regarding education, what is going to happen when there are no people willing to teach because we've collectively suggested they are disposable like garbage. Fucking unbelievable.

Case in point (though why this woman would vote for Trump in the first place is beyond me). Better late than never, I guess. Changed her political affiliation and quit her job. Guess it's hard t pretend your the party of pro-life when your leader is committing mass murder and wants you to die, too.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/coronavirus-covid-school-reopening-teacher-republican-trump.html?via=taps_top

@4 @6 @7

Xina you are the worst. All you do everyday is post your negative fear mongering anti Trump bullshit on here. I am sick of you and your stupid comments. Kids need to go to school and you need to finally shut up and let other people have opinions. Also stop linking every fucking news source. Shouldn’t you be protesting or something? I am sure you hate cops, maybe take some of this negativity and yell at them.

8

banned again, eh? how Sad it must be for you.
Fuck right off with your low-life bitchings re: xina who
astutely provides more Valuable Info in one post than FOX/Sinclair do in a year.

oh and btw -- why do you Insist on limitng her Free Speech?
don't "like" her opinions/can't take the Heat, eh?

Xina -- you are my Hero.
Thank you So Much for your
Awesome contributions.

Ah how badly people respond to the truth. Just like Trump and the GOP the willful denial of reality becomes more and more difficult, hence the lashing out at those who point it out.

Thank you @9, btw.

@10 No, restaurants and businesses are not safe either. No indoor gathering of any kind for a long period of time is safe. Being indoors, you are 19X more likely to catch COVID-19 from someone who has it and the chances rise exponentially with regard to time, proximity to other people, and whether or not everyone is wearing a mask. The only way to manage right NOW is to assume everyone is infected, wear a mask, distance yourself from other people, do what needs to be done (like grocery shopping) as quickly as possible, and stay home (or go outside while wearing a mask - to reiterate the above in another way, outdoor transmission risk isn't very high, about 18.7 times less than indoors).

Those who have to go to work everyday are risking their lives to get paid and some do not have a choice. Anyone going out to socialize or shop because they are bored is (insert whatever word you want here that indicates how fucking stupid people are).

Every single school system that has opened here in the U.S. has already had to shut down and quarantine their students, pretty much immediately. Indiana. Georgia. Texas. Mississippi. Missouri. The school year is going to be long and disruptive if all it is is opening, sickening, quarantining, re-opening, re-sickening, re-quarantining - lather, rinse repeat.

But hey, keep on believing opening schools is not going to be a total shit show of epic proportion on just about every single level for everyone involved. Lashing out with nasty attacks against me will never change the facts and currently the facts say WE ARE FUCKED.

A Mississippi town welcomed students back to school last week. Now 116 are home in quarantine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/06/school-coronavirus-outbreak-mississippi/

Teachers returned to a Georgia school district last week. 260 employees have already gone home to quarantine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/04/school-outbreaks-reopening-georgia/

Indiana Schools Just Reopened. One’s Already Closing After COVID-19 Case.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/indiana-schools-just-reopened-ones-already-closing-after-covid-19-case

University of Texas anticipates testing "several hundred" symptomatic people every day
The University of Texas says it will do 5,000 tests a week — but won't say what happens when there's an outbreak

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/06/university-of-texas-anticipates-testing-several-hundred-symptomatic-people-every-day/

There's also the matter of FACT that social media platforms have removed Trump's LIES about children being immune to COVID-19. Banned from tweeting until he took down the tweet. Too bad he didn't have stroke when that happened.

Oh and:

Unshocking new pattern: School opens, COVID-19 cases emerge, students forced to quarantine

Expect the number of such examples to keep rising until school district leaders everywhere come to their senses and do the right thing by moving to remote learning until community spread of the coronavirus is under control and schools have been made safe.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/6/1967030/-116-students-in-one-Mississippi-town-quarantined-after-COVID-19-outbreak

The real reason Trump wants schools to open.

"Nationwide, the number of COVID-19 cases among people under the age of 18 from March 1 to Aug. 3 were 40% Hispanic, 34% white and 19% Black. The ethnicity breakdown of those patients who died from the disease is 38% Hispanic, 34% Black and 25% white, according to the memo." The numbers also show that boys are more likely to die than girls, and by roughly a 2-to-1 margin.

Black American children are dying of COVID-19 at higher rates than white children (the white children are just collateral, acceptable damage to him).
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/6/1967093/-Black-American-children-are-dying-of-COVID-19-at-higher-rates-than-white-children

Of Course online teaching SUX.
Fake "prez" has no Plan for
that either. Surprised?

So, what's the next best Alternative?

If they're not willing to Die
for trumpf and Country
what Good are they?