Eli Saslow of the Washington Post interviewed Arizona Superintendent Jeff Gregorich about the prospect of opening schools in his district with the coronavirus still active in the region. The article causes me to wonder why decisions about when to open schools are made by politicians, not scientists, medical experts, and educators.
Gregorich was candid, blunt, worried.
This is my choice, but I’m starting to wish that it wasn’t. I don’t feel qualified. I’ve been a superintendent for 20 years, so I guess I should be used to making decisions, but I keep getting lost in my head. I’ll be in my office looking at a blank computer screen, and then all of the sudden I realize a whole hour’s gone by. I’m worried. I’m worried about everything. Each possibility I come up with is a bad one.
The governor has told us we have to open our schools to students on August 17th, or else we miss out on five percent of our funding. I run a high-needs district in middle-of-nowhere Arizona. We’re 90 percent Hispanic and more than 90 percent free-and-reduced lunch. These kids need every dollar we can get. But covid is spreading all over this area and hitting my staff, and now it feels like there’s a gun to my head. I already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving these kids?
This is your classic one-horse town. Picture John Wayne riding through cactuses and all that. I’m superintendent, high school principal and sometimes the basketball referee during recess. This is a skeleton staff, and we pay an average salary of about 40,000 a year. I’ve got nothing to cut. We’re buying new programs for virtual learning and trying to get hotspots and iPads for all our kids. Five percent of our budget is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where’s that going to come from? I might lose teaching positions or basic curriculum unless we somehow get up and running.
I’ve been in the building every day, sanitizing doors and measuring out space in classrooms. We still haven’t received our order of Plexiglas barriers, so we’re cutting up shower curtains and trying to make do with that. It’s one obstacle after the next. Just last week I found out we had another staff member who tested positive, so I went through the guidance from OSHA and the CDC and tried to figure out the protocols. I’m not an expert at any of this, but I did my best with the contact tracing. I called 10 people on staff and told them they’d had a possible exposure. I arranged separate cars and got us all to the testing site. Some of my staff members were crying. They’ve seen what can happen, and they’re coming to me with questions I can’t always answer. “Does my whole family need to get tested?” “How long do I have to quarantine?” “What if this virus hits me like it did Mrs. Byrd?”
We got back two of those tests already — both positive. We’re still waiting on eight more. That makes 11 percent of my staff that’s gotten covid, and we haven’t had a single student in our buildings since March. Part of our facility is closed down for decontamination, but we don’t have anyone left to decontaminate it unless I want to put on my hazmat suit and go in there. We’ve seen the impacts of this virus on our maintenance department, on transportation, on food service, on faculty. It’s like this district is shutting down case by case. I don’t understand how anyone could expect us to reopen the building this month in a way that feels safe. It’s like they’re telling us: “Okay. Summer’s over. It’s been long enough. Time to get back to normal.” But since when has this virus operated on our schedule?
I dream about going back to normal. I’d love to be open. These kids are hurting right now. I don’t need a politician to tell me that. We only have 300 students in this district, and they’re like family. My wife is a teacher here, and we had four kids go through these schools. I know whose parents are laid off from the copper mine and who doesn’t have enough to eat. We delivered breakfast and lunches this summer, and we gave out more meals each day than we have students. I get phone calls from families dealing with poverty issues, depression, loneliness, boredom. Some of these kids are out in the wilderness right now, and school is the best place for them. We all agree on that. But every time I start to play out what that looks like on August 17th, I get sick to my stomach. More than a quarter of our students live with grandparents. These kids could very easily catch this virus, spread it and bring it back home. It’s not safe. There’s no way it can be safe.
If you think anything else, I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy. Kids will get sick, or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die.
Some legislators in Indiana are threatening a 15% cut in funding for school districts that don’t offer an in-person option. THIS IS SICK!!!
Kids will get sick, or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die.
As US reaches 5 million COVID-19 infections, Europe alarmed with failure to contain spread: ‘Don’t they care about their health?
AUG 09, 2020 AT 9:26 AM
ROME — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.
Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.
But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.
“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions. … They need a real lockdown.”
Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units.
Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the U.S. reached the 5 million mark, according to the running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Health officials believe the actual number is perhaps 10 times higher, or closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40% of all those who are infected have no symptoms.
“We Italians always saw America as a model,” said Massimo Franco, a columnist with daily Corriere della Sera. “But with this virus we’ve discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent.”
Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza hasn’t shied away from criticizing the U.S., officially condemning as “wrong” Washington’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization and expressing amazement at President Donald Trump’s virus response.
After Trump finally donned a mask last month, Speranza told La7 television: “I’m not surprised by Trump’s behavior now; I’m profoundly surprised by his behavior before.”
With America’s world’s-highest death toll of more than 160,000, its politicized resistance to masks and its rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely traveling to the bloc.
France and Germany are now imposing tests on arrival for travelers from “at risk” countries, the U.S. included.
“I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said last week….
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-coronavirus-updates-20200809-4hau3a3o4vcpnjbndnymji2ymm-story.html
Too bad the photos don’t come through. I advise everyone to purchase a toilet bowl cleaner with Trump’s head on the cleaning end. Putting his head in the toilet regularly will make all of us feel better.
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Just found a visual on Youtube. Lol!!
beachteach: I LOVE it and sent it on to others who would like to put Trump’s head in the toilet.
Exactly. It’s very, very dangerous, heedless, magical thinking–Trumpian in its dangerousness, heedlessness, and fancifulness. Are your numbers low now? Just wait until the Coronavirus Exposure Chambers have been open for a few weeks.
This is just unbelievable. No help or support from the state… just a mandate “open or else.” Wow.
A lot of idiot Trumpy legislators and governors are going to be voted out of office after the inevitable catastrophe that reopening schools will cause.
I know I am preaching to the choir…. but being voted out is not enough. It’s borderline criminal, in a pandemic, to go against science and advice from the CDC and knowingly put your citizens at high risk for infection while ignoring the pleas from superintendents. A lot of kiddos in high poverty areas rely on their grandparents and live in tight quarters. How can the Gov of Arizona be so cruel as to revoke funding rather than advocate for more $$ to support safer hybrid and remote models.
Agreed entirely, Ginny.
perhpas one word left out which explains some of this: a lot of non-White kiddos in high poverty areas…
Arizona has a long history of electing fools for politicians (repeatedly).
Same as it ever was.
This frustrated superintendent clearly demonstrates how essential the public schools are to the community. The community depends on the schools for education, guidance and assistance in times of need. Gregorich is caught between what is best for his schools and community and the political dictum being forced upon his schools. Gregorich understands that opening will cost the community a lot of suffering and that his community has few resources to combat this virus. It is an ethical and moral dilemma that many communities are being forced to make. While Arizona has made some improvements in positivity rates, it is currently at 13.17%. There remains lots of risk to students and staff if schools open in these conditions.
I read the original story when it originally came out. The first thought that came to mind is that Superintendent Gregorich is just like thousands of other Superintendents across the United States that are being hung out to dry just for political reasons and, of course, the election in November.
It is the Superintendents, Teachers, Students, and Parents that are now the fodder for a political game being played by people who do not have a clue as to all the harm their dangerous mandates are doing to people of this nation on a daily basis. And, they really do not care. They really do not give a damn
We can now add another group of Professional to the front line of those fighting this pandemic — our Educators. They are now putting their lives on the line for their Students. One big difference is that in so many cases this Professionals are not being given the tools to help keep their Students safe.
How many Students, Teachers, Parents, Grandparents and others will die during the deadly political game play? How many will have to pay the price for the arrogance and stupidity of those who have sworn to protect people of this nation and are not willing to do so. The price of arrogance and stupidity will be hight.
Superintendent Gregorich and his commentary are as emblematic for our current situation as any I have read.
He speaks truth to the reality. He is a voice of common sense and compassion. Like teachers across the country, he is speaking up.
Most Americans in seats of power and dare I say authority, do not know his children, his community, and schools.
Most Americans in seats of authority have the privilege to be oblivious to it. They skim the article and turn the page.
Daily we see story after story of the illegal, corrupt, disgusting, and hateful actions of the president, Governors, and silent fools on the Hill. Yesterday’s scandalous testimony headlines already forgotten.
So we read these blogs, watch the news, write a comment or two, maybe call the Governor’s office. Are we waiting until November thinking the effects will match the protests awakening to racial injustice and teachers demanding healthy schools for children and themselves. Where is the protest to fix this mess?
Where are the millions of college students who should be storming state houses and DC and the ballot box to protect their futures if not for others today?
Why does it take Moms in yellow garb to draw attention to the president’s attack on Americans?
Why does it take a high school student with a cell phone to expose a hallway of kids at risk (and then gets suspended)?
Where is the bastion of CEOs who should be storming DC knowing full well that action in April and May would have prevented the downward spiral affecting the nation and now the election and the presidential manipulating a takeover?
Over 150,000 deaths and a half million cases could have been avoided. Yet here we are.
Those reading these blogs daily are a sliver of the millions who need to pay attention. Instead, a cloud of apathy and helplessness and silence to the bribery and extortion that a 300 student school district faces prevails. It’s August – maybe that will change.
Superintendent Gregorich’s courageous commentary tells the story of his community. Now parents in all communities – red and blue – suburban and rural – are affected as millions and millions of children are not going to school. Will they speak out and demand health standards and monitoring, funding and more funding, and yes – accountability for those who said and did nothing in April and May – or made it worse with lies and politics.
The private school in North Carolina visited last week by VP Mike Dense and Sec. for Privatizing US Education Ditzy DeVoid and praised by them for fully reopening now has its first kid who has tested positive for Covid-19, and the entire 4th grade there is in quarantine. Heckuva job, Mikey, Ditzy!
Bob Shepherd: I want to know how many confirmed cases/deaths have to occur before schools close down again? It’s bound to happen.
The country is in much worse shape than back in March when schools closed. This country is crazy.
I just spoke with a friend who hadn’t been out of her house since March. She went to Costco and couldn’t breath with a mask and a face shield in place. She went home and now is taking her temperature multiple times a day.
It is sad that this is freaking people out. Our favorite buffet has closed down.
One other friend will go out to eat but only outside. We went out once.
I have a friend in Miami who is working part time at minimum wage. She feels fortunate to have a job but it isn’t enough to survive on.
Life is cruel and it won’t get better with the Orange Ignoramus in charge.
It’s only a matter of time I think, Carol, until the schools shut down by then, but by then, enormous damage will be done–the virus will have spread exponentially. And then people will say, “Oh, but we didn’t know.” It’s so predictable, sadly.
Heart breaking story and he can’t count on the elected officials for help.
The irony is that when Arizona s governor shut down schools last March , Arizona had only 12 confirmed cases and no deaths.
And now, with spiking CoViD , he says they have to reopen, or have federal funding cut (something Trump does not have authority to do, by the way).
Ducey is clearly caving to political pressure.
But where are Arizona s Democratic politicians ? Both Senators?
One has gone on the record as saying she does not believe schools will reopen August 17 but she should be demanding that they not be.
Ducey dances on the Koch-DeVos string. They fund his campaigns.
“the guidance from OSHA and the CDC”
Imagine trusting any “guidance” out of a federal government managed by Donald Trump who is known for having reports from agencies revised and edited to fit whatever dark Fox fed fantasy of a conspiracy theory that is running through his mind before he forgets it and is onto another fantasy conspiracy theory that will one day lead to a dystopian United States of nightmare proportions if Trump stays in power.
Even a few more months with this devil-smacked freak of a wreck is too much. Pray that COVID-19 takes this “thing” that claims it is human, soon … very soon.
Lloyd Lofthouse: This article outdated but it summarizes the ‘unique intelligence’ of our Great Leader.
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Trump Needs Conspiracy Theories
The president uses them for political and personal ends. The damage he’s wrought along the way won’t be easily repaired.
NOVEMBER 29, 2019
…“We’ve never had a president who trades in conspiracy theories, who prefers lies instead of fact,” Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University and a presidential historian, told me.
A U.S. president has at his disposal the most authoritative information available on Earth. Yet Trump doesn’t seem to want it. Disdainful of credentialed professionals, Trump has taken extraordinary steps, and spent taxpayer dollars, standing up dubious ideas of his own creation…
Read More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/trump-conspiracy-theories-ukraine/602728/?utm_source=atl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share
Does Donald Trump really believe all those conspiracy theories? Depends what you mean by “believe”
SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
Don’t swallow Trump’s claims to believe every nutso conspiracy theory. He’s playing dumb to get what he wants
…It may seem weird to argue that Trump-the-moron is a narrative that benefits the president, but in fact that works for him — and especially the people under him — better than the narrative that he knows exactly what he’s doing. Stupidity removes considerable moral culpability from both Trump and his advisers.
It allows the aides to portray themselves as good people who are just trying to manage an irrational boss, rather than people who are knowingly covering for a criminal, which is what their actual actions (such as illegally concealing his conversations with foreign leaders) would suggest. It allows Republican politicians, pundits and voters to tell themselves that Trump is a well-meaning guy who should be forgiven his peccadilloes, since he’s just too dumb to know better….
In reality, there are strong indications that Trump is aware that the conspiracy theories he spouts are false and that he understands that when he asks other people — whether that’s foreign heads of state, his own lawyers or White House aides — to produce “evidence,” he’s actually asking them to concoct false evidence on his behalf.
For one thing, Trump tends to be careful to establish plausible deniability when he encourages QAnon and other conspiracy theorists. He retweets conspiracy theorists to elevate their profile and often floats theories, but is generally careful to frame this as merely “asking questions.” In fact, he often retweets conspiracy theorists when they say innocuous things, so he can claim, if he’s confronted, that he didn’t know anything about their crazy ideas.
This was precisely his strategy when promoting the “birther” conspiracy theory in the years before he ran for president. Trump would rarely, if ever, claim directly that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Instead, he would simply claim he had “doubts” or make statements like, “I want him to show his birth certificate,” nourishing the illusion that he was simply trying to get at the truth, rather than spreading vicious lies…
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/2019/09/30/does-donald-trump-really-believe-all-those-conspiracy-theories-depends-what-you-mean-by-believe/
How can anyone ignore the agony and helplessness expressed by Superintendent Jeff Gregorich? And what does Trump have to offer? “It is what it is.”
This is good news. If Wall Street doesn’t love Biden, it means he is going in the right direction. “Anyone is better than Trump”, seems to be hitting those with money.
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The Wallets of Wall Street Are With Joe Biden, if Not the Hearts
Through donations, finance executives played a critical role in helping Joe Biden turn his campaign around. They’ve mostly grown to like him, if not love him.
Aug. 9, 2020
Wall Street has fared extraordinarily well under Mr. Trump: deep cuts to taxes, slashed regulations and, until the pandemic hit, record stock prices. But in recent months, dozens of bankers, traders and investors said in interviews, a sense of outrage and exhaustion over Mr. Trump’s chaotic style of governance — accelerated by his poor coronavirus response — had markedly shifted the economic and political calculus in their industry.
More and more finance professionals, they say, appear to be sidelining their concerns about Mr. Biden’s age — 77 — and his style. They are surprisingly unperturbed at the likelihood of his raising their taxes and stiffening oversight of their industry. In return, they welcome the more seasoned and methodical presidency they believe he could bring.
They may not exactly be falling in love with Mr. Biden. But they are falling in line.
“I’ve seen meaningful numbers of people put aside what would appear to be their short-term economic interest because they value being citizens in a democracy,” said Seth Klarman, founder of the hedge fund Baupost. A longtime independent, Mr. Klarman was at one point New England’s biggest giver to the Republican Party. But in this cycle, he has given $3 million to groups supporting Mr. Biden…
This confirms it: OPEN UP THE SCHOOLS. More teachers, aides, social workers, cooks, maintenance people need to meet with these children who are increasingly testing positive.
How in the world can someone teach a band class? Forget recorder classes. Nobody can play a band instrument with a mask on…except for percussion.
I wish someone who is currently a music teacher would tell me how they plan to do any work in this environment. My children always moved around a lot for activities and played a variety of instruments, including a full set of xylophones. There is no way my classes could have been the same if I’d had to have everyone 6 feet apart. How does one sanitize classroom instruments or singing books after each class? [maracas, triangles, drums of various sizes, etc.] Is a teacher supposed to run around frantically spraying Lysol all over the place before the next class walks in? [The next class is ALWAYS waiting in line to come in as soon as the current one leaves.]
NYT is getting lazy. There is no link to this article.
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At least 97,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July.
At least 97,000 children in the United States tested positive for the coronavirus the last two weeks of July alone, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The report says that at least 338,000 children have tested positive since the pandemic began, meaning more than a quarter have tested positive in just those two weeks.
The report comes as parents and education leaders grapple with the challenges of resuming schooling as the virus continues to surge in parts of the country.
More than seven out of 10 infections were from states in the South and West, according to the report, which relied on data from 49 states along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. The count could be higher because the report did not include complete data from Texas and information from parts of New York State outside of New York City.
Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the highest percent increase of child infections during that period, according to the report.
New York City, New Jersey and other states in the Northeast, where the virus peaked in March and April, had the lowest percent increase of child infections, according to the report.
In total, 338,982 children have been infected, according to the report.
Not every locality where data was collected categorized children in the same age range. Most places cited in the report considered children to be people no older than 17 or 19. In Alabama, though, the age limit was 24; in Florida and Utah the age limit was 14.
The report noted that children rarely get severely sick from Covid-19, but another report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighted how the threat from a new Covid-19-related condition, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C, has disproportionately affected people of color.
The C.D.C. said that from early March through late July, it received reports of 570 young people — ranging from infants to age 20 — who met the definition of MIS-C. Most of those patients were previously healthy, the report said.
About 40 percent were Hispanic or Latino; 33 percent were Black and 13 percent were white, the report said. Ten died and nearly two-thirds were admitted to intensive care units, it said. Symptoms include a fever, rash, pinkeye, stomach distress, confusion, bluish lips, muscle weakness, racing heart rate and cardiac shock.
Donald Trump has denied claims that White House aides asked South Dakota governor Kristi Noem about adding another president to Mount Rushmore, which he said on Sunday night was ”never suggested” but that “it sounds like a good idea”.
Gov Noem, who last month presented the president with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included his face, had told interviewers in 2018 that Mr Trump mentioned adding his face to the monument was his “dream”.
In a Twitter post Sunday night, Trump issued a weak rebuttal, writing: “This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN.
Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!”
The president then went on to post a picture of himself smirking next to the famous monument.
What Teachers Want Parents To Know Right Now
…I wish parents knew what teachers are going through right now! Instead of double-checking lesson plans, I’m double-checking my life insurance policy and making sure my paperwork is in order in case my parents have to take custody of my son when I’m either hospitalized or dead. Instead of spending my meager ‘back-to-school’ savings on items for my students and classroom, I’m spending it on PPE and creating an isolation chamber in the trunk of my car. Instead of being in in-service training that helps me become a better teacher, I have been in meeting after meeting with district staff saying ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I’m so sorry you have to do this’ and ‘follow CDC guidelines’ and ‘we’re not talking about that today,’ while they offer no practical solutions for logistics. Instead of sitting in my classroom excited for a new year, I’m hiding in my storage closet having a panic attack because I’m a teacher, not a health care worker, and whatever I do, it will not be enough. Instead of enjoying the last few weeks of summer with my child at home, I’m viewing every moment we have through the lens of ‘what if this is his last summer with his mom?’ Instead of listening to my school board talk about how community spread will impact opening, I had to watch 10 hours of school board meetings where the only decision they made was that we should follow CDC mask guidelines.
More than anything, I wish parents knew that I am a human being who loves my job and loves my child, and their kids will be fine if they don’t get regular school for a semester or even a year. And teachers are so tired of the conversation being centered around all the things schools provide that have nothing to do with education, because our job is to teach, not to be social workers, food distributors or health care providers. We are having to relearn our jobs from scratch and are being told to do the opposite of everything we’ve ever been trained to do.” ― Anonymous
“As a teacher, I want you to know that I love your children and I want to be with them. I’m just as scared as you are, and I’m doing the best I can. Please be kind.” ― Marcy Hairston
“I am a high school social studies in Toledo, Ohio. I have spent my summer with my own 5-year-old child doing everything I can to keep her safe. I feel like I am being asked to sacrifice myself. Teachers have never had a voice in the conversation. And in the absence of leadership, each district is forced to attempt to appease parents at the risk of their staff. Our district is laying off teachers and support staff. And every day I am supposed to be creating lessons plans on shifting sands. Meanwhile, people ask me my thoughts and I just deadpan, ‘I don’t want to die.’ Distance learning is not ideal, but we aren’t living in ideal times. The best plan for reopening school is the safest one, but as a society, our selfish desire for normalcy is overpowering our compassion and concern for others.” ― Sara Peterson Rhine…
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-teachers-want-parents-to-know_l_5f2bf99bc5b64d7a55ef98a0?utm_campaign=share_email&ncid=other_email_o63gt2jcad4