Will we hear about the spread coming from the schools? I doubt it, because it's not good p.r.

School might not be such a big problem if the entire nation had worked to together to stop the spread.

About 10% of our nation has been and will continue to not wear masks, throw parties, ignore social distancing and mock science.

This is a long term problem.

Even if they are or aren't wearing masks, that is certainly not social distancing. That alone, would tell a rational person the schools aren't going to get it right. However, her video is available if you bothered to look for it. But like I said, your eyes won't be opened. Until it's too late

Yes, there is one easy answer for this, postpone until there's a vaccine. They said 12-18 months, and it be 12 months in January. There are late stage clinical trials going on, with vaccines that look promising.

Risking my son's life, my life, my mother's life... because there are parents and students so antsy and can't stand being at home, isn't a good enough reason. Lives are at stake, so who gives a flying flip if there's any inconveniences? It's not up to you who is put at risk, nor should it be.

School is another place where COVID has been like the receding tide. It reveals underlying problems in society.

What IS 'school'? For many, the opportunity for a formal education is only tangential. It's free babysitting. It's socialization. It's two or three meals a day. It's a safe place in a rough neighborhood and away from abusers at home. It may offer some health care. There might be a social worker.

When parents elect to send their children to school during this pandemic, some are reflecting on the above. Some also have little or no access to remote learning tools. In some homes (rich and poor) there is no capable adult willing or able to stay home and supervise.

Our school system overcame the food portion. Buses are used to deliver food. To the bus stops. Not to the school, and you come get it.

We all need socialization. We're all desperate for it.

As for babysitting, many parents are working from home who didn't before. That's some of them. Some, if responsible, can stay home alone. It doesn't solve the littlest, but it's not all of them.

Postponing one semester isn't that big of a deal on the scheme of things.

Not to disagree, but suggestions for the greater good.

How can it be safe for our precious children? What's changed since March? It's worse, that's what. It's not just seniors who have health issues; many parents do as well. Even teachers do. Maybe older students with masks and strict enforced distancing (not like the video) could work.

Arcy, I agree with you. Your views do matter at home or in public and public health officials need to respect that. You pointed out, quite aptly, that they only meet by Zoom meeting because of the health hazard...but it is OK for kids and their families, right? There is no "moving on" until there is a vaccine or effective treatment.

Yes, isolating ourselves from crowded, congested environments with little or no sanitation, masks or distancing is just pain selfish. I see that. /S

I replied without name calling and expressed my opinion. I wonder what causes a seemingly intelligent person to respond to an opposing opinion with such venom? The psychopathy of that is so interesting.

I hope that people who are sending their children have plans for when the children become sick and die beyond a go fund me page. With the lack of thinking beyond "I want" there will be many small coffins filled in the next few months with the family wailing "but we did not know" while thinking it would be another families child. The lack of desire to have a healthy child has always seemed to be more of a Munchausen problem that something to be looked forward to by supposedly loving adults.

the uneducated and untrained morons with personal agendas we have in political offices who've been proven wrong over and over.

we have lots of those in CA, WA, OR, NY, IL, MN and other dem led states, plus the dem mayors of many cities.

if I still had school age kids they wouldn't be going back into a school building for classes. They'll survive.

Could we call school board members who say it's O.K. to send kids into the usual non-distanced classrooms (with slightly lower populations due to some parents withholding their offspring) but who hold their own meetings via Zoom ....

... "ZOOMERS"?

(Some of them quite possibly "Boomers" already).

o j (sorta thankful offspring crowding 60 and no grandkids ... to be burdened with paying off the covid19-related additions to regular gov't debts)

They'll survive.

But Steph, will their teachers and their grandparents? This is an extremely virulent virus and has been proven to be deadly over and over.

I saw where several people both students and three teachers have now tested positive to the virus. Since health conditions are covered under HIPPA I doubt unless the families release the information the condition of the infected people will be known to the public.

"if I still had school age kids they wouldn't be going back into a school building for classes. They'll survive."

I agree, kids should not be going back into physical school buildings.

Teachers should not be going back either.

Make that 9 people that are infected. According to several news sources, pick the one you want to look at, the school is planning on deep cleaning and will be doing virtual instruction. No mention of how long the virtual instruction will last but my best guess is the rest of the year.

In part...from an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today:

"Children might be more vulnerable to Covid-19 than once believed, with
new research suggesting that they are able to contract and spread the
virus, especially if they don’t take precautions such as wearing a mask."

My subscription to the WSJ needs renewing so I didn't get to read the entire article this morning but it's not the first such article that I've read. I've been awed to learn that the world of medical science now believes that children are very active carriers of the virus and are more often than not...asymptomatic.

All this documented knowledge and some areas are still pushing to open their schools this Fall? Something is certainly amiss in their brain departments. 🙄

It defies logic up, down and all around. They might as well be telling us the earth is flat, 'cause it's the same thing.

The school in the pic is near me. I drive past it multiple times per week. There are no masks from what I can tell. I was nearby on Friday during carpool time and didn’t see any evidence of precautions. Not surprising at all. This is deep red country. Also lots of trucks with confederate flags mounted on the back so...

FWIW, a friend just shared this on FB - from the Daily Mail, but it's about the USA.:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8609847/Nearly-100-000-children-test-positive-coronavirus-past-two-weeks.html

"...97,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 from July 16 to July 30, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics

Of the over five million coronavirus cases in the US, 338,000 were children..."

If children are similar to adults who show now symptoms they too will have long term health defects. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/scientists-see-lung-damage-in-asymptomatic-covid-19-patients/ar-BB16aukf

I am aware that nothing anyone can post will convince the naysayers until several of the people they love develop it. They must see it is not something that only a few have long term health problems if their loved one does not die.

Not sure if even that would convince some folks, maifleur...

I know that some will not be convinced even on their own death bed. However it is better that it is their death bed than a child's.

But wait, there's more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/5-year-olds-covid-saga-has-florida-mom-saying-hell-no-to-in-person-school

"...For months, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has waged a public relations campaign to convince parents that it is safe for their children to return to campus. He has consistently argued that a majority of children are unlikely to get very sick and unlikely to become super-spreaders of coronavirus—statements supported, at least to a degree, by studies and health experts. “Children of all ages are susceptible to COVID-19, though thankfully, few develop severe disease requiring hospitalizations and a large percentage are symptom-free,” said Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious-disease professor at Florida International University in Miami.

But those children who end up in the hospital can develop serious, even deadly, secondary complications from the disease, including heart failure, blood clots and acute kidney injury, Marty cautioned. She also noted parents whose children catch the virus also have to watch for signs that could lead to multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, the disturbing illness associated with coronavirus that appears to only affect children. “It’s a small percent, thank goodness,” Marty said. “But even one child with this is tragic.”...

...Marcellus went home after seven days of isolation in Palm West’s intensive care unit, his mom said. He may still need surgery to remove his appendix. Policik said she and her husband have, like so many others parents, had long, difficult conversations about what to do when schools reopen. And while Marcellus’ experience pushed them in that direction, they actually made the final decision to do online learning after speaking to her sister-in-law, who is a teacher.

“I asked her how she feels about it, and she is scared,” Policik said of another conversation with a friend, also a teacher. “It just takes one parent to say, ‘Oh it’s just the sniffles,’ send their sick kid to school, and spread it like wildfire.”..."

“It just takes one parent to say, ‘Oh it’s just the sniffles,’ send their sick kid to school, and spread it like wildfire.”..."

I was a former school nurse. Parents sent their sick kids to school, seriously ill children, all the time. Mostly because they had no one to watch the child when they went to work. Other times it was because the child was trying for a perfect attendance prize given by the school. Some of them were too ill to even be in my clinic. I had one mom tell me she wasn't going to pick up her child because she had to go to court, the child was very ill. I told her if the child was not picked up in 30 minutes I would call Children's Protective Services (she showed up 15 minutes later).

My point is in even in the non Covid days sick children show up and by the time something is done to remove them from the school setting, it is too late. Most are bussed, they they go to the cafeteria for free breakfast and then to their classrooms. so by the time the teacher sees them and sends them to the clinic they have been close to many kids, the bus driver, the cafeteria staff, the teacher's aides that monitor the halls in the morning.

High schools often have clinics that have several rooms. Elementary clinics are mostly one room, so the ill children cannot really be isolated from other ill children in the clinic. So in elementary schools those kids are contacts as well.

I'm sorry if these questions have already been answered, but they occurred to me last night: If my school district is teaching only in-classroom, but I'm not comfortable sending my children there at this time, is there a penalty of some sort? And would I have to do the home teaching with no curriculum nor help of any kind? These are hypothetical questions for me as my kids are grown, but I'd like to know the answer(s) to them.

sjerin contact your school district for home schooling suggestions. Your state board of education may also have a list of accepted in your state companies. In some states you must pay but others there may be away for the school or state to pay. If you think about it there are disabled children or those with cancers that can not be in a normal school setting. Each school district should have connections to provide education to these children.

Perhaps some of the people on here could mention which companies that they have or are planning on using.

Some schools have teachers only in the classroom. Students may remain at home and connect via the internet.

Elizabeth, a problem arises when the teacher has children, who are doing remote learning in his/hers or another school. Perhaps the those children can come to the classroom, and work semi-unsupervised with noise-canceling headphones on? But if they are young enough (heck, if they are old enough!) they need supervision.

sjerin, every state has different laws about what is an acceptable home schooling curriculum. A quote from ProPublica website:

"Many states require parents to notify local school districts that their children will be homeschooled, but 11 states don't require parents to alert anyone. Most also don’t require tests or portfolio reviews as proof of educational progress."

There are many sources of curricula. My neighbors homeschooled for most of their kids elementary years, then the kids chose to go back to public schools.

According to a report published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, there has been a 90% increase in the number of coronavirus cases among US children over four weeks.

The new report, expected to be updated weekly, said there were 179,990 new Covid-19 cases among US children between July 9 and August 6.

Last evening our School Board declared YES it is safe and we are moving forward. One of the board members, a local physician spoke to the SCIENCE and the ramifications on students of NOT being in school: uptick in suicide/physical and sexual abuse as well as the lack of nutrition and education. He said we will be living with this for some time and we need to start dealing with it, hiding from it is not working for people over all. This is our world now. Tine to accept life as we have it NOW, even if and when tragedy may strike.

And OTOH, the girl who took that viral photo of her HS hallway, the school that is now having to close because of infections, is being threatened over what she did...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/us/paulding-school-crowded-halls-threats/index.html

"...The sophomore also said she On Sunday, she said she doesn't think the school would have addressed the issue as early as it did if she hadn't posted the image.

"We could have just delayed opening like many other schools," she said. "They kind of sent us to school and used us as guinea pigs to see what would happen later on."

The sophomore also said she understands that people want to have the option for in-school learning for a variety of reasons, and she does too, but it's just not safe yet.

"We're all pretty concerned about going back and I know a lot of my teachers are too. Because we all want to go to in person," Hannah said. "I have no intention of shutting the county down because I know a lot of people don't learn well online, I don't learn well online, and I want to be able to go to in person school and have some type of normality this year for my semester. But we can't if we're not safe."..."

Choosing to send kids back to school is the most unAmerican thing one can do. To choose self over county is wrong. In this case, is wrong in the worst way.

Think what you want, but we all see.

Oh I think we're all wanting to go back to face to face living, no argument there. Where we differ is how safe is it now, here -- and on how much we're willing help a pretty serious virus spread in our communities. We're a big country, we might have different answers ... but it's a mighty big gamble to think the virus isn't capable of exploding even in your area. No one is that remote.

My son, who is about to start his senior year of university, was telling me the university's plan for the coming semester. For classes that meet 3 days a week they will have 1/3 of the students attend in person each day and 2/3 attending the lecture online. Classes that meet 2 days a week will have 1/2 the students in person each day and be held in larger classrooms than would be normal. Labs will be in person but the number of students in lab at one time would be limited and multiple times would be available per lab.

The school will re-evaluate the situation as the semester progresses.

This seems like a reasonable approach and I hope it is successful. He had a hard time LFH on a Calculus II course last semester but managed to squeak by with a C. Had he received a D he would have had to retake the course since it is a required course in his computer science major.

lfh means what?

Learning from home?

yes, learning from home

Eager to get back? Yeah. Count me in. I’m eager too. I miss having get togethers. I long for it. My first grandson was born, and we can’t celebrate and share this once in a lifetime joy the way we would have. Birthdays, graduations, anniversaries have come and gone. We’re all so tired of it, but, there is no intelligent choice, other than waiting till there is a vaccine or cure. In the meantime, if we want to do our best to live to tell the tale, we must continue being vigilant.

Unfortunately, those who like to pretend it’s over are hurting us.

The truth is, even if (bite my tongue) every student missed one year, they’d be ok.

I for one want my grandson to live to be an old man. I want to live in this world as long as I can with him. I want my loved ones with me.

Michele, I so agree with you. It's about our kids and grandkids. My life has been good, and I wish the same for them. And to get together the way we want to, well, the price is too high. Although we do meet with them in the open garage, masks and distancing. My grandkids are doing well on lfh, but I know many kids are not. When school resumes, there will be a wide disparity among children, those who are working at grade level and those who are not. Poor teachers dealing with that.

Confusing recommendations here in Kentucky. Governor recommending schools don't open until the end of September but bars and restaurants can open to 50% capacity. The one story about the restaurants and bars opening up more is because they are worried that people will be having no social distancing/no masks house parties. Because adults are either too stupid to protect each other or they just don't care. I think it's both. I also think we aren't ever going to get back to normal because there are so many stupid people in this country who don't give a crap about anyone but themselves.

And what many "it's my choice to wear a mask or not" people don't seem to realize, is that had almost everyone been good about all the logical advice to get rid of this virus, we would be sending our kids to school right now without fear.

My cousin got covid at school during teacher in-service. Masks were recommended but not required. She wore one to protect other people but sadly some people don't give a rat's a$$ about anybody else. We are very concerned for her.

Masks work. They save lives.

Agree with Elmer that Fauci is a national treasure. Look how great his baseball card is doing! https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/27/us/anthony-fauci-baseball-card-spt-trnd/index.html

As far as being a liar, well, that's just about the silliest thing I've ever heard. Trump lies multiple times each and every day. The Liar in Chief exceeded 20,000 lies to the American public on July 13th. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/

The funny thing is, a few times in the past month a reporter has asked him about comments that fact checking found to be false and he ended the news conference and walked away.

The most recent one I saw was this week (I think) when he took credit for passing some act regarding veterans benefits that in fact was enacted in 2014. A reporter questioned his false statement, said why, and as a reaction Trump said "thank you", and walked out.

Yeah, to call Dr. Fauci a liar is absurd. Served under six presidents, received numerous awards, etc. Trump people say the most ridiculous things.

I don’t understand the tone of this thread. It’s not likely we can change each other’s minds, so perhaps we should agree to disagree. I understand some are very scared, and rightfully so, but the best we can do is to protect ourselves by taking the proper measures. If someone is comfortable wearing a mask and someone else isn’t, then stay away from each other (as in 6 ft away).

Likewise, I don’t believe there is one answer that ‘fits all’ with regard to in person or virtual learning. What’s best for a small, rural district with low positivity and cases is likely not what’s best for a hot spot area.

I do think the teachers unions have way too much power and control in my area. They had input into the district’s plan for school reopening. Once the plan was announced, they reneged on the agreement within days. Most of my husband’s family are active or retired teachers. When Covid eventually goes away or we have a vaccine and life returns to some semblance of normal, I’m sure they will complain about the lousy job parents did of teaching during the pandemic. They have already expressed concern that some parents are unenrolling their child(ren) from public school so they can homeschool on their own or enroll the child in a private school with in person learning. Their concern is the public schools will lose funding for every child that is unenrolled and the teachers could be facing layoffs. I’m thinking ‘welcome to the real world.’ Many of us (including teachers) thought it was just fine that the healthcare workers, grocery workers, food processing workers, etc. have worked throughout the pandemic. I’m tired of the teachers (at least my in-laws) denigrating other professions and parents and claiming how very special they are and no one has a worse life than they do. Good teachers are important as is education but I can do without the complaining.