Covid and School

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

lol Whatever works.

What can I say? The kid loves his PS4 and more importantly he HATES being sick. When he gets sick, he makes sure the entire household is miserable.

[JPhillips]

Maybe I can use the threat of no Tik-Tok on my daughter.

[tarcone]

We had a PD Nov. 2. A teacher went and got tested biut thought it was a good idea to go to PD day. The person tested positive. Now at our school we have 25% of our staff out tomorrow. Plus 37 kisd because a staff member tested positive.

Get your shit together. wear a damn mask And/or stay home

[PilotMan]

So thankful that our SR was able to do college/HS dual enrollment and has all his classes from home. He's getting a huge head start on college and he doesn't have to deal with any BS from the school. Besides, he and I get to go out and play disc golf just about every day as long as the weather is ok, and he does a good job at managing his schedule. It's really the best we could have hoped for.

[Ksyrup]

Well, the inevitable happened. Caitlin tested positive. It was just a matter of time - not only is she around a ton of athletes and training staff, coaches, etc., but she's also student-teaching in an elementary school. Seven of 8 2nd grade teachers are out and she was with them, so likely she got it from them. But a coach and trainer also have it, so it could have come from them, too.

She had election day off, so she came home for the day. Symptoms the next day. So now we're quarantined. Really affects Mackenzie because she's out of basketball for 2 weeks and season is supposed to start Thanksgiving week. We're getting tested today, no symptoms for the 3 of us. Caitlin's just got a scratchy throat/voice and cough but feels fine otherwise. Up to 7 teammates currently have it now. Just hope there's no post- Covid problems for any of them.

[JPhillips]

Yikes. Good luck to all of you.

[miami_fan]

I just received a letter asking if we are going to continue with E-Learning or switch to brick and mortar. The tone of this letter is a lot different from the letter that was sent out and the beginning of the letter. Instead of trying to convince me how horrible keeping my son at home was. This one set upon explaining what it was safe to send him to the brick and mortar school. This one actually describes what the specific safety procedures are in the school. The lessons that they learned from the beginning of the year are also included. Not necessarily for my son, but they even are allowing high school seniors who decide to remain in E-learning to walk with their graduating class. That is a 180 degree shift from what they said at the beginning of the school year when they were told they could not.

[ISiddiqui]

There is very little chance that my wife's schools goes in person any time soon. They had a goal of under 100 Covid cases per 100k people in the County for a 14 day average. They got there for 4 days in early October, but before even teachers came back in, it jumped backed over 100 cases, so they delayed.

It's now over 200 Covid cases per 100k people in the county...

[rjolley]

Speedy recovery to you and your family, Ksyrup.

[Ksyrup]

We all tested negative. I better be negative because I've been running 5 miles a day, so that would give new meaning to asymptomatic. The high school is going virtual rest of the week due to lack of subs with so many staff quarantining. Getting bad here.

[QuikSand]

Our state just relented and agreed to share school-based data on positive tests. That, along with the ever-increasing numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths (even here on the libtard east coast), seems pretty likely to doom all the plans of pushing kids back into buildings for in-person learning sometime very soon.

Lots of our systems set up caseload-based triggers for moving ahead, presumably thinking that things would be getting better after early October... and now we are above all those triggers and the big back-to-school supporters are unsure what to do.

Our school system is going back on its own announced plan already, and it sounds like many in MD are re-evaluating the "learning center" model, which seems to basically just be "providing a safe and supervised place to do remote learning."

[spleen1015]

Announced tonight that HS is going back to 100% virtual starting on Monday.

[Ghost Econ]

Catholic elementary school here, k3-8th.

Switching to virtual through Thanksgiving because a teacher tested positive. They said they'll send a second email if your kid was a close contact. Now everyone is refreshing their inboxes. Hoping it wasn't like the art or PE teacher.

[Flasch186]

So the wife was feeling funny yesterday and I said well go get tested. She went today and tested positive. So I went and got our 4 yr old from VPK and they seemed a bit alarmed and mentioned that they'll call the CDC. Then I went and grabbed the 6 yr old and 10 yr old from their school that they attend. They seemed far less concerned. Me and the kids just got tested and we're awaiting the results.

[stevew]

Looking like my wife might go virtual thru January. Will save a lot of gas money for sure.

[spleen1015]

GL Flasch

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

So the wife was feeling funny yesterday and I said well go get tested. She went today and tested positive. So I went and got our 4 yr old from VPK and they seemed a bit alarmed and mentioned that they'll call the CDC. Then I went and grabbed the 6 yr old and 10 yr old from their school that they attend. They seemed far less concerned. Me and the kids just got tested and we're awaiting the results.

Just know, tests are far less accurate prior to a week after infection. So if you've been exposed, tests are completely worthless in the first week, but a negative should be taken with a grain of salt.

[PilotMan]

My boy's high school has had one or two positives that they have sent out letters about since they started back in person on alternating days in September. After the increase a week ago, the district instituted a random testing policy for the school. Today, after the first round of tests, 20 students positive, and 2 teachers, all were asymptomatic.

One kid is away at University, another works at a different University, hard to gauge where this is going and when we're going to get hit.

GL to you Flasch and to your family.

[JPhillips]

We'll call the CDC seems a bit of an unnecessary escalation. How about the school nurse or a local clinic?

[Izulde]

We're going back to cohorts on the 30th due to political pressures causing the board to vote for that 4-3. Even though cases are still high. Needless to say, I'm furious.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Catholic elementary school here, k3-8th.

Switching to virtual through Thanksgiving because a teacher tested positive. They said they'll send a second email if your kid was a close contact. Now everyone is refreshing their inboxes. Hoping it wasn't like the art or PE teacher.

So it was the Spanish teacher. We got an email saying that daughter was exposed and has to quarantine for 2 weeks. She took it well, she's finally done crying. She's more upset about missing gymnastics for 2 weeks.

Also, not sure how they determined close contact. Only about 1/4 of her class got an email, and the kids who sit closest to the teacher didn't get emails to quarantine.

[Galaril]

First off wow there are a lot of spouses who are teachers here. My wife’s school just announced they are going back to 100% virtual until Jan 1 (at least).

[tarcone]

Interesting. Missouri just announced they are changing the exposure protocol. It was if you were within 6 feet of someone for more than 15 minutes you were quarantined. In person schools were getting hammered with quarantines.

Today they changed it to if you come in contact with someone who tests positive and you are not wearing a mask you are quarantined. So they got rid of the 6 foot and 15 minute requirement. Npw it is if you were un masked. And say you can be close to a person as long as you are both properly masked. Face shields are a no Gaiters and masks a yes.

This was in response to schools that were closing due to quarantines. Which is a lot all over the state.

Missouri is crazy.

[tarcone]

Also, if you come in contact with a positive person, If you test negative, you are good.

[Flasch186]

Strangely My wife and my 10yo son (both O blood type) are positive...

Myself, my 6yo and my 4yo that my wife puts to bed every night very hands on and very closely, are all negative.

We're all Q'ing in the same house so this is going to be interesting. 14 days... Thank goodness for my Iracing sim rig.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Strangely My wife and my 10yo son (both O blood type) are positive...

Myself, my 6yo and my 4yo that my wife puts to bed every night very hands on and very closely, are all negative.

We're all Q'ing in the same house so this is going to be interesting. 14 days... Thank goodness for my Iracing sim rig.

My wife and I have kicked around plans for if one of us tests positive (or even suspects). Since it looks like viral load plays a huge role, whoever was infected gets to quarantine in the master bedroom and basically doesn't get to come out. That way, even if the other person gets exposed, it's hopefully a small enough dose that they'd be asymptomatic (of course, there's always the chance that you get exposed too much before the person is symptomatic but you can at least try to quarantine even then).

SI

[Edward64]

My daughter's college has said don't come back after Thanksgiving and just do remote learning. Wife's school has a rumor this is what they will be doing also. My son's college hasn't said anything yet.

I think most schools are now setup well for remote learning. Still challenges for minority of kids without reliable or convenient access, and obviously a big problem for families with both parents working and younger kids etc.

But yeah, I'm all for remote learning until we once-again flatten the infection curve.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just for another data point, my kid is home until January.

He's still IN classes until early December, just not AT class. It's "reading week" as they call it (exam prep essentially) then a week off, then exams over a ten day window into early December. And then off until classes resume January 25th.

[JonInMiddleGA]

From today's article about the end of the HS football regular season in Georgia.

-- 192 of the GHSA’s 426 football-playing schools are on track to play 10-game regular seasons

-- About 113 teams will play nine-game schedules this season. Only 48 will play seven or fewer games.

--5 played vs same-system opponents only

-- 4 (I know of one more than the article mentions) dropped out mid-season. (their combined record this season as played was 2-24)

-- 5 dropped football season entirely (none of which had won more than 2 games in either of the two most recent previous seasons)

Cancellations, transfers among top stories in a season like no other

[miami_fan]

A couple of my son's teachers have been pretty adamant about trying to convince the kids to come back to brick and mortar school. Not just "I can't wait to see you guys" vibe but a convince the kids to pressure the parents to allow them to come back vibe. It has been going on over for most of the year. I understood it for the first month or so but at some point, it seems a bit of overkill and stands out from the other teachers. This is especially the case, given when provided the opportunity to talk with parents during conference night, there was no mention of the return to school option by either teacher. It was and is a blatant disrespect for the choice that the parents of the children IMO.

Fast forward to the last two weeks, my son has had no Zoom sessions for one of the teachers and the other one had only one earlier this week when she sounded like shit. Limited communications with either to boot. Today, we find out that both teachers have tested positive for COVID and first one has been hospitalized for the last two weeks. The one that we saw earlier in the week has to be sent home for symptoms. Of course that means that the students either have had to quarantine and return to e-learning or will have to quarantine going into their Thanksgiving break. Makes no sense.

[Lathum]

Last night we got an email from the school saying they are tightening the protocols, contact tracing, and sending home any students who have had close contacts with someone who has symptoms.

Today we got a message saying they are going to start training the kids to bring home chromebooks, learning materials, etc..just in case. Despite not having one case in the school they are totally setting us up to go all virtual. The timing, a Friday before a holiday week, is just too convenient

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Last night we got an email from the school saying they are tightening the protocols, contact tracing, and sending home any students who have had close contacts with someone who has symptoms.

Today we got a message saying they are going to start training the kids to bring home chromebooks, learning materials, etc..just in case. Despite not having one case in the school they are totally setting us up to go all virtual. The timing, a Friday before a holiday week, is just too convenient

The administration told my wife the same thing. When everything kicked off in the spring, the schools closed at like 6pm on the Friday before spring break. They had to schedule time for the teachers to come back and get supplies. We transitioned seamlessly into e-learning when the tropical storm came through and closed the schools for a couple of days.

A thought just popped in my head. Would schools refuse to allow kids to come to school if they don't take the COVID vaccine the way they require kids to be up to date with other vaccines?

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

A thought just popped in my head. Would schools refuse to allow kids to come to school if they don't take the COVID vaccine the way they require kids to be up to date with other vaccines?

I fully expect that to happen. My wife and I discussed what we'd do if it did happen. We've decided the kids would continue to do virtual learning. Not that we're anti-vaxers, but I do not trust a vaccine rushed to market and don't want to be in the first couple of waves.

[whomario]

The Moderna and Pfizer/BionTech won't be given to children any time soon as those are not yet included in studies (by design children are the very last to be and then you start with older kids. If it is done at all for these specific vaccines with the new technique. Might be different in the Oxford one as that's a 'proven' delivery mechanism (though mRNA actually ought to have considerably less chance for longterm sideeffects with how non-invasive it works without amplifyers and not entering the cell core but that's another thing entirely ...).

[PilotMan]

I guess it's our turn to play the waiting game. My middle son came home (from EKU) for the year last night. Coincidentally, his floor had 2 kids in their program test positive this week. One of whom, he was potentially close with. The second kid was asymptomatic. He's right on the borderline of 'exposed' or not, and he was not contacted by the tracer, but we're still very wary. I guess we'll see how the next few days go.

[PilotMan]

dola

and it looks like the earliest scheduled testing time is the 30th. Soooooo, that's pretty much useless.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

dola

and it looks like the earliest scheduled testing time is the 30th. Soooooo, that's pretty much useless.

Would Cinci have more options? I have a friend who is a firefighter/paramedic there. I can reach out to him to see if he knows any spots that may be quick.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

dola

and it looks like the earliest scheduled testing time is the 30th. Soooooo, that's pretty much useless.

Wife and I come off quarantine next Friday, and I just set us up for appointments at the local Urgent Care for Saturday morning the 28th. That's the earliest date they have. Just last week you could get an appointment about 3 days out. I'm sure Thanksgiving has something to with that, but I bet the drastic increase in cases is more to blame.

[Ben E Lou]

Public schools in our county finally went back to in-person learning last week for just K-2, but now they've announced that they're going to do remote learning 11/30-12/4 "in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following the Thanksgiving holiday."

We pulled the younger one (2nd grade) from the district 3 weeks ago and enrolled her in the private school her sister (6th) has attended since day 1 of this school year. It was quite likely that we were going to do it in third grade, but she was starting to express to us how lonely she was feeling...basically from 11:30am-3:30pm five days a week--the time when she was finished with her schoolwork, but my wife and I were still working and her sister was at school. Not to mention the toll that having to guide her through remote learning in the mornings was taking on work for both of us.

Their school seems to be doing well. They've had 3 cases, none spread from school, and in all three instances, the persons infected (two teachers and one student) quarantined immediately upon learning they'd been exposed. The unusually warm fall has been a pretty big help, no doubt. They have maybe six outdoor classrooms set up, and I doubt anyone thought they'd still be using them in late November. Parents still haven't been allowed inside the building. The administration's consistent message has been "we want to continue in-person learning, but we need all of our families' help outside of school to be able to do that."

[tarcone]

Our district is closing our 7/8 building and HS the week after our Fall break which starts today, K-6 stays face to face.

Also, it sounds like there are a bunch of positive cases amongst our staff.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Wife and I come off quarantine next Friday, and I just set us up for appointments at the local Urgent Care for Saturday morning the 28th. That's the earliest date they have. Just last week you could get an appointment about 3 days out. I'm sure Thanksgiving has something to with that, but I bet the drastic increase in cases is more to blame.

The news was talking about kids not coming home from college, that they should stay there, and be treated like visitors if they do come home. Meanwhile the college is basically shutting down for the year. So leaving your kid on campus with no food options isn't really an option. The question then became for the reporter "what do families do? " And I'm like, we're taking the risk, and bringing our kids home, and doing it without much support. Exit testing at the colleges would've been a great step.

That's the sort of foresight and leadership the country has been missing here. Instead we're still chasing our tails and "hoping" we've done enough, which time and time again has been proven wrong.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

The administration's consistent message has been "we want to continue in-person learning, but we need all of our families' help outside of school to be able to do that."

1. I am impressed that the administration has had a consistent message.

2. So no one complained about not having the annual Thanksgiving dinner where the family members were allowed to eat Thanksgiving lunch with the kids? No? So it is just in our school then I guess.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Send them all to school and let God sort them out.

This line of thinking seems to of gone out of fashion in most of the western world, bar the U.S.

Will those who still believe in the sky fairy still take the vaccine, or any medicines for that matter? Perhaps the logic would be that we just leave it all up to God and not interfere with the vaccine witchcraft lol?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

1. I am impressed that the administration has had a consistent message.

2. So no one complained about not having the annual Thanksgiving dinner where the family members were allowed to eat Thanksgiving lunch with the kids? No? So it is just in our school then I guess.

Heh. I haven't heard any complaints about the Thanksgiving dinner being kids-only this year. probably because of the administration's laser-focus and clear communication on doing all we can to keep in-person learning going. (Well, and there's the fact that we're new to the school, so no one wanting to bitch about it privately to a trusted friend would choose us. ) The administration told us in August that parents would not be allowed in the building in 2020.

That said (and what led me back into this thread,) they've called off in-person school for tomorrow (would have been a half-day and the Thanksgiving lunch.) We got an email a couple of hours or so ago.

We learned Monday afternoon an opposing player in last Friday's (November 20) home varsity boys' basketball game received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis earlier in the day. Out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to cancel all classes scheduled for Tuesday, November 24. This decision was made after evaluating the reach of basketball student-athletes across the community. Team members have not reported complications and have started to quarantine.

They're also cancelling all athletics until further notice.

[Lathum]

We went to threat level orange meaning any students showing symptoms are presumed positive until cleared. That means any close contact has to quarantine and not go to school. Today was the first day and apparently a kid on one of the buses was sick so the whole bus has to stay home until that kid is cleared.

We chose to drop off at school instead of the bus this year to avoid this exact situation. Naturally the facebook group for the school is now flooded with parents saying they are dropping their kids from now on so the drop off line tomorrow is going to be an absolute shit show of people not knowing where they are supposed to go.

[Ben E Lou]

This decision was made after evaluating the reach of basketball student-athletes across the community.

Re-reading the email from the school caused me to key in on this sentence, and I just did a little contact tracing of my own here by cross-referencing the team roster with the student directory. One member of my sixth grader's close friend group has a brother on the team, and one of my 2nd grader's classmates also has one, so it's theoretically possible that team members got it on Friday, spread it to siblings over the weekend, and then all of them went to school on Monday. Their mask protocols are strictly enforced, but not at lunch. My family and our next-door neighbors have incorporated one another into our bubbles, but we're having to tell the kids they can't play with the neighbors for at least this week, and probably longer.

[Ghost Econ]

We seem to have escaped our daughters quarantine without a positive test. Touch and go last week when I was puking my guts out, but it appears to have been a bad reaction to unfamiliar medications.

We found out it was my kids Spanish teacher, so they had to shut the whole school down since she sees everyone. Doesn't appear to have spread, but she's still in the hospital and having it pretty rough.

Of course, a family down the street has a kid who also goes to my kid's private school. The mother and the father tested positive last week. When we heard the husband was at work and the kid was down the street playing at a neighbor's.

This is why we can't have nice things.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Heh. I haven't heard any complaints about the Thanksgiving dinner being kids-only this year. probably because of the administration's laser-focus and clear communication on doing all we can to keep in-person learning going. (Well, and there's the fact that we're new to the school, so no one wanting to bitch about it privately to a trusted friend would choose us. ) The administration told us in August that parents would not be allowed in the building in 2020.

That said (and what led me back into this thread,) they've called off in-person school for tomorrow (would have been a half-day and the Thanksgiving lunch.) We got an email a couple of hours or so ago. They're also cancelling all athletics until further notice.

I am going to need you to stop with all the examples of good leadership please. It is not good for my mental health and well being

EDIT: Kudos to all the parents as well.

[henry296]

Ben,

I appreciate the caution, but I think based on your description (might need a flere diagram) your kids are 3 levels removed. If we had strong contact tracing and everyone quarantined if you were 3 levels away we should just go back to full lockdown because all of us likely have that level of exposure.

One of my kids was home for 2 weeks because their teacher was positive. That would mean that anyone who was exposed to me should quarantine because my kid might've gotten it from her teacher which might've exposed me. Now, in our situation, both my kid and the teacher were wearing masks during school.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Georgia has the first two playoff football cancellations of the year (I'm in the "not IF a title will be determined by Covid, simply HOW MANY will be" camp)

I will note that Banks County (1-9) would have been a 47 point underdog on the road (130 miles away) at Callaway (7-1) and Landmark Christian (1-9) would have been a 35 point underdog on the road (250 miles away) at Calvary Day (6-4).