Yes, safely. Your anecdotal and unfortunate story aside, the schools have the ability to make school safe. Mask usage, social distancing, etc. But guess what? Kids are going to get sick no matter what they do. And guess what? Statistically speaking it will be A-OK. Life goes on. The numbers I posted above from Florida support this stance. I do not know what the numbers look like outside of Florida, but there is no reason to believe they are worse elsewhere.
How do they make it safe? Hypotehtical is the school I mentioned with 2150 kids in a building built for 1950. Go.... What if 1 kids gets it What if 100 kids get it
They're gonna get it. Just like they're gonna get the flu. The flu is actually more risky for children, did you know that? Again, just going by the stats. The question you need to be asking is what happens when the teachers get it, which is going to happen. And the substitute teachers who try to cover for them etc.
That is why the teachers were not onboard yet, because there are no answers yet to this and they decided starting virtual for the first quarter will give them more time to see what is happening and what plans can be made.
We'll have to disagree on that, I guess. I believe the teacher's union isn't as selfless as you make them out to be.
The real problem is that school systems have not defined the criteria for what should be done if COVID breaks-out at the school. Parents want to know what the criteria and actions are before being comfortable with sending their kids to classrooms: For instance: What action will be taken if one child in the class test positive for COVID? Does the class go remote for 14 days? Do you just ignore it and stay in school? What action will be taken if many students test positive for COVID in a class? What action will be taken in a middle or high school when one or many students test positive in a building where they change classrooms each period? What action will be taken if COVID breaks out in many classes? At what point is the school shutdown? If the community COVID infection rate goes up greatly - at what point is the school closed down? With an R of 1.5.. or 2.0 or 3.0? What is the point where the community spread forces schools to close? These are all policy questions that need to be answered before most parents will commit to sending their children to classrooms.
The criteria is that it would be the same as it is now for the flu. As far as Wuhan-19, Children will not be infecting teachers and children are an extremely low risk group for any serious complications. Children are more affected by the flu, including mortality from the flu yet school goes on. School needs to carry on as before.
Because they have no solution. There is no solution to have in large part. It is going to happen. Kids will get sick and be back to school in two to three days as is common with Covid and that age demographic. The impact won't be with the kids. The impact will be with the teachers, and to a lesser extent, to the parents. There will be disruptions in teaching coverage that will have to be managed. Hopefully it can be managed. And then teachers will come back to school all fine having had the virus and they'll all get their "I had COVID 19 and all I got was this Stupid T Shirt" shirt.
I know they are. But they're still going to get sick. they're not immune. And there is going to have to be a plan for covering them with substitute teachers the same way there is during the flu season.