From an infection control point view, let alone harm to children, we appeared to have landed on the worst possible option. Whatever risks there are, closing schools simply displaces and worsens them for poorer people who cannot work from home. This, not the pods, is the story.https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1291006850532605954 …
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Replying to @zeynep
This is a story, but it is a complicated one. "Whatever risks there are" hides a lot. And schools aren't closed. I agree that schools should provide more options, but not all kids are low risk, teachers & their families also count here (schools are also workplaces).
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Replying to @AmeliaNGibson @zeynep
Looking at/working in the back end of a lot of this now, and I *really* worry about "the story" swinging this completely away from safety based on the idea that "closing schools is untenable." Poor kids also tend to be more vulnerable, medically. Nuance/complexity is important.
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Replying to @AmeliaNGibson
Indeed. The way we're doing it isn't really just closing schools. We're just displacing the risk. Wealthier kids in pods; poorer kids in haphazard childcare with risks just out of view; medically fragile kids left isolated without special provisions for teaching. Worst combo.
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Replying to @zeynep
Pulling
@CGrantAdvocate in here. I think recent cases require schools to provide in person instruction for some EC students if needed. But agree that counties need better options for hybrid learning. Difficulty is getting teachers who want to take the risk.2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
And I don't blame them (we don't want to take the risk either, because why should we die for a job?). This whole thing is pointing to broader failings. We've asked school systems to do too much. And now we're asking them to fill those gaps w/o help.
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Replying to @AmeliaNGibson @CGrantAdvocate
I don't blame the teachers at all! But this should have been the national priority in April, and why aren't people outraged that colleges are open—so much more documented risk that it's not even comparable. For medically-fragile kids, we should have had special provisions. +
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Options included: zoom from qualified (older) teacher supported, as appropriate to the risk/case, by in-person "counselor" who is either young or otherwise little risk, in outdoor settings and/or with proper ventilation. But that requires resources and prioritizing them!
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Replying to @zeynep @CGrantAdvocate
I worry abotu the gap between medically fragile and higher risk for COVID complications. Poorer kids, and Black children tend to have higher rates of asthma, etc. Less likely to have access to good health care. Their schools have poor physical infrastructure - poor ventilation.
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Again, not saying schools shouldn't do these things. I just really worry about people grabbing "the story" that "school should open for poor kids" and leaving all the needed funding & precautions behind (like we've done with everything else).
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Sigh, yes. The problem is the same communities whose schools are worse and whose children are more vulnerable, are the same communities who are less able to work from home, and will now be forced into worse--uncontrolled, less monitored, haphazard--childcare scenarios. Terrible!
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We should have, could have prioritized them. Instead, everyone is fighting over pods and what it does to equity, as if the equity crisis isn't about what we didn't do rather than parents scrambling at the last minute, and those with resources finding it easier to adapt—as usual.
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Replying to @zeynep @CGrantAdvocate
Yes. We should have focused (and still should) on safe infrastructure for kids who need to be in-house, and making sure that they can be, safely.
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