Check your exuberance at the door.

Dear Superintendent and School Board Members,

March 17, 2021

Please check your exuberance at the door. It’s premature and irresponsible.

Last week, Ohio had 3058 new COVID-19 cases among students and faculty in their K-12 schools, nearly double the figure reported the previous week of 1,773. The spike in cases came just two days before Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s March 9 false pronouncement that “victory is in sight” in the fight against the virus. This, of course, is in addition to Illinois, where Schools are now the number one source of new infections, and Michigan, where schools are also the largest source of new outbreaks. 

 

Yes, our numbers are down in our district. Hurray! That is fantastic news. But to treat this as if the pandemic is over and the risk is insignificant is both irresponsible and foolish in light of the rapidly growing threat of the UK variant, which is substantially more infectious and deadly than the wild type covid, and far more infectious to kids than the original covid. On top of that, it is expected to become the predominant strain by the end of March. Everywhere in the world where it has surpassed the 50% threshold and become the predominant strain has seen increases in infection and mortality rates well beyond anything they experienced before. This is particularly true in Europe and in the UK.

 

California currently has the second highest number of reported UK variants in the U.S., after Florida, which surpassed the 50% threshold this week. Our surge is very likely just around the corner, making it even more irresponsible to open the schools now. The kids who come in will be exposed to it in their homes and communities. Some will come in pre- or asymptomatic, like the person at BHS who was recently diagnosed, but in much greater numbers as the UK variant proliferates. Because it’s more infectious, instead of a few students catching, next time it will be lots of students who catch it. They will take it back home and sicken their family and community members. Our schools will become breeding grounds for the virus, as they have in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. As they have in Europe.

 

It is irresponsible and dishonest for the school district to tell families it is safe to return. Consider the following question I was asked by a student this week: “How can they say it’s safe for us to return to the classroom without being vaccinated for covid during a deadly pandemic when we are not permitted to come to school unvaccinated against polio, mumps, measles, diphtheria, pertussis and typhoid?”

 

Of course, she is right. We can promise families that their kids will not die of measles, mumps, polio, diphtheria picked up at school because we do not allow kids on campus if they have not been vaccinated against these deadly diseases. This is the definition of “safe” that most families understand when they entrust their kids to us. They expect that their children will not get sick or hurt because of something at school. This is why half our families are choosing to NOT return to school, because they can see through the dishonesty and the premature exuberance, that the pandemic is NOT over—far from it—that it is NOT safe, as they understand that word.

 

It is precisely because of vaccines that we no longer have to worry about catching polio, mumps, measles, diphtheria, typhoid in the community. And, as Dr. Michael Osterholm said, "We are within weeks to months of getting most of this country vaccinated [for covid]. Wouldn't you want not to be the person who dies two weeks before they're supposed to get their dose of vaccine? That I think is the message we have to get across."

 

Offering Zoom live to a fraction of our student population offers little to no pedagogical advantage over continuing to do it from home for the remaining few weeks of school. Sure, it gets us a few million dollars from Gov. Newsom and it gets a few angry, self-centered parents off your backs, but only temporarily. When their kids come home complaining about the strict and oppressive rules; the long lines; the fact that few of their friends are there and they can’t hang out with those who are there; that they can’t get any one-on-one attention from their teachers because they are cloistered behind their plexiglass screens, performing zoom for their students at home; that they’re doing the exact same things they were doing before, only without being in the comfort and security of their own homes; those same angry parents are going to be right back on your backs, screaming and yelling for more. For a preview of how miserable hybrid classes will be for kids, you should read this editorial from the Washington Post by a high school senior who had been excited to return, until he experienced it. Consequently, I would be very surprised if our district did not experience a similar attrition in students attending in person.

 

With respect to the Governor’s bribe, sure, of course we could use the money, but not at the risk of any illness, hospitalizations or death, and certainly not for such little return in terms of academic benefits.

 

So, instead of pandering to the loudest shouts from a vocal minority of parents, let’s do what’s safest and most responsible for the majority, including the community at large, and keep the schools closed until Fall 2021, when, hopefully, students will also have been vaccinated. The alternative, opening schools as planned, runs the very real risk of serious illness or death for some of our students and their family members, not to mention exacerbating the coming surge in the community. If this happens, our School Board and Superintendent will be asked by the community: was it worth it?

 

If you think the rude and noisy comments from parents are bad now, I would expect them to be far worse then.

 

Thank you again for your time and consideration.