Texas School Children Will All Get COVID-19
Four days after the start of the school year, I did something that I never imagined I would do: I unenrolled my 5th grader from public school. As an avid supporter of and true believer in public schools, this is a decision I never thought I’d make.
I’m a reasonable parent. Knowing there would be no mask mandate, I sent my child in a mask and encouraged her to take reasonable precautions. She is too young to be vaccinated. Our children’s hospitals are full, so I worry that she wouldn’t get adequate care if she got sick or even broke a leg. I observed that many students weren’t wearing masks, including the student that sits next to her. Hmm.
I decided to call the nurse and ask what the procedure is if there is a COVID case in the classroom. The nurse told me that the TEA would not, at that time, allow for parents to be told if a child has COVID in their class. This changed a couple of days later – the TEA changed guidance to say that if a child gets sick in my kid’s class, I get a notification. So I asked the nurse – do the children have to quarantine if they are exposed to COVID-19?
Her answer: No, it’s a personal choice. Upon notification of positive cases in my child’s class, I observed that children in that class were being sent back to school, without masks, after being exposed. Not many parents were making the choice to quarantine.
I asked the nurse if the schools would be contact tracing. The school nurse informed me that Collin County is in charge of contact tracing and that the school reports every positive case to the county. I called the county, and the county informed me that they are not doing any contact tracing, they just send the reports up to the state. The state is very understaffed and they have made no attempts to contact trace, based on the accounts of several people I know that were exposed in a classroom and have not been contacted.
So we had no masks, no contact tracing, no quarantine. It’s no surprise that my daughter’s school has more than one positive case in every 5th grade classroom as we speak. My kid wasn’t exposed because I pulled her out Monday, and I’m not sending her back until she is vaccinated.
Texas politicians have put politics over children’s health and safety. They’re not making any attempt to mitigate this disease. This year, our kids are going to see teachers die, students hospitalized, and they will all get this infection that may damage their lungs permanently. All because Abbott wants to win a primary.
I’m angrier than I’ve ever been at Republicans, and that’s saying something.
So much for being the “pro life” party.
1Being ruled by these lesser gods, will we ever hear the words “negligent homicide” applied and cast these subhumans down from Olympus and into the pit?
2Pass it along: “Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott and Kristi Roem are committing crimes against humanity” — George Takei
3It’s not the politicians; it’s the parents. Too many want a masks-optional policy that protects no one.
4Jet Harris: I’ve tutored kids in math for 52 years now, and for the past 40 years I do it for free. It’s difficult to do online, but I’m helping out 4 kids from the neighborhood now, one of whom is actually 2000 miles away in college.
If you or your fifth-grader want help, let me know. I’m not saying you are incompetent in 5-th grade math, but often students find it is easier to have a non-relative helping out. We can figure out some way to connect up and get this done, maybe by asking JJ to break the sacrament of the Salon and pass along my email address.
If you think your daughter can use this help, start out by having her record every homework or test problem she has trouble with. That always gives a good starting place to work from. [Also, I’m not all that surly. It was an accolade from the grad students in my department. They gave me a choice among Fulk the Surly, Professor Succinctus, and Doctor Contradictionum Difficilis but I realized I’d mispell the other two a dozen ways each week.]
5SurlyProfessor,
Thank you for the offer! I am truly touched. Math, we have covered- a close friend of mine teaches math and my husband is a math guy so we are ok. I send her to them for all maths that I can’t handle.
She is a bright kid, so it’s mostly fun and games so far!
6Jet,
I support facilitate in English and Social Studies. Obviously, you have my email address, so feel free. I obviously teach during the day, but I’m available to answer questions if need be.
I absolutely cannot fault any parent for making this decision. I support 20 students on my case load. Three of them have not returned. Obviously, some parents are more than qualified to teach their children. Some are not. Either way, you can’t teach them if they’re dead. It’s an absolute failure of leadership. I can’t say it surprises me though. We’ve gone this direction in education for years. We are becoming increasingly afraid to stand up and take a stand on any issue. The “it’s up to you…” stance is utter bullshit in the middle of a health emergency. You forfeit that choice in my book. We will give you the shot while you are duct taped to a chair, kicking and screaming if we have to.
7@#1…what makes you think the rePUKEians are ‘pro-life’? They are pro-forced birth, pro-fetus, & pro-anti-woman but never PRO LIFE, especially when it involves criminals or immigrants.
8I think they really don’t care how many people die. Maybe they’re testing out their herd immunity theory.
9I simply don’t understand this. In DC, we are closing in on 80% of eligible people vaccinated. Still, the unvaxxed are causing a surge in positive cases and deaths. So, we have a mask mandate for public transportation and all indoor venues–especially schools where the kids aren’t yet eligible for vaccines.
Do we love our kids and each other in DC more than those in Texas and Florida? Given the lack of mask mandates and lack of gun control in those states–despite mass shootings–I believe the answer is “Yes!”
10Have always considered the antivaxxers and antimaskers to be suicidal. Frankly, anyone of them over the legal age can be as suicidal as they want, but to take our kids with them as collateral damage – HELL NO! That’s a bridge way too damn far!
11BarbinDC @ 10, I’m here in suburban Houston & trying to stay healthy. I’m so grateful I don’t have kids in school. One daughter lives in DC, so I’m heartened by what you’ve just said. My other one is in San Francisco, which is also pretty strict on masking & vaxxing. At least my kids are relatively safe. The elementary school near us, which they attended years ago, is already shut down after only a week of classes, due to covid cases. It’s so sad and so many people just don’t seem to care.
12I just checked the Covid precautions in place here for Gillespie County’s school district. They “highly” recommend masks but, thanks to Greg Abbott, can’t make that a requirement. As of Aug. 24, there were 52 Covid cases at the high school. If those cases reach 57, the 5% positivity rate will be reached. And what happens then? The school is shut down for 3 days for “deep cleaning.” How is that possibly going to help? That’s so 2020! Then we weren’t aware the main mode of transmission was respiratory droplets. Might as well hang a garlic necklace on every kid for all the good that will do.
13Sound decision, Jet! If and when vaccinations are available to those under 12, we’re not 100% sure we’d trust the “adults.” Let’s say for purposes of discussion only that 100% of the school staff and students are vaccinated. We’d feel better, but what about the other parents of those school kids and their co-workers? Or until we reach a vaccination level nationwide of 85+%, we will continue to err on the side of caution. Got my vax, got my mask, and keeping eyes wide open on anyone remotely thinking about invading the social distancing space.
Albeit, that is easy for us to say because we live in a remote area of northwestern NV and our school system has been providing excellent on-line curriculum and resources.
14I am astounded that we still keep hearing about deep cleaning. That does virtually nothing if the ventilation systems are antiquated, which I have no doubt most of them
15You did exactly the right thing, Jet. Voluntary “precautions” are no precautions at all. I’m so glad I don’t have kids in elementary school right now! My grandson, at 13, is fully vaccinated, so I don’t worry (quite so much) about him. If he were unable to be vaccinated for any reason, I’d be frantic.
16This situation is beyond appalling. Before COVID I was so happy my 2 boys were grown and turned about to be wonderful young men. At the time I was happy because we were done with hormone poisoning, moodiness, and all the rest. Now I’m happy because they are out of school! OMG I feel so bad for all who have kids in school at all, but especially those not old enough to be vaccinated. Crimes against humanity is exactly right.
17@Surly – I’ll pass on your email address to Jet for you.
18And the really good news is that these kids in their classrooms a wonderful culture for COVID to incubate C-19-d to C-19 Lima to C-19 Zulu to omega. What fun! If the Black Plague came back, I believe the anti-vax Trumpites would declare rats a protected species. Just because. To pimp the Libs.
19This is part of Greg Abbott’s and Dan Patrick’s assault to kill public education.
If public schools are such a mess that even public school advocates withdraw children, public schooling will cease operation in the too near future.
It would be good if some parents band together and sue school districts to hold to commonly-accepted public health standards if safety. Sue Abbott, too.
20Jace@19
21Only the white rats
Thank all math teachers. That said, if I could count, I wouldn’t be a lawyer
22What is Abbott and Patricks’ “end game?”
23Weakgrip@21: you win the prize for the best four-word response of the day! Sadly it’s true.
Jace, early in the T**** Plague the young-uns around campus called the idiots who rejected social distancing, masks, and sensible precautions “rat lickers”. Based on the belief that if the Black Plague was running rampant, they’d pick up and lick a rat just to own the liberals.
24This and so much else happening now that would’ve seemed unimaginable a few years ago is talked about in great story in The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/radicalism-post-trump-gop/619891/
I was able to read it online, but got the “2 more free articles this month” message, so if a paywall comes up, it’s
Trumpism Has Entered It’s Final Form.
Owning the libs is apparently now every “real murkins”
25sacred patriotic duty.
I’d be a hypocrite if I said I’m a public school advocate.
My public schools were poorly funded and the teachers were almost all conformers (remember Joe McCarthy?). Only in high school were there three good ones: Geometry, Civics and AP English Lit. All weirdos and really good teachers.
When my kid hit elementary school, things were so bad that a group of us parents badgered the school system mercilessly until they gave in: a classroom with our choice of teacher hire. Summerhill System mostly, lots of parent aides, educational trips, better food. No lack of guidance and strangely little need for disciple. Good male classroom support, too. Basically up to pre-teens.
The town, Port Townsend (Jefferson County, WA) at that time had no decent TV, cable very expensive. Less competition for kids’ minds, plus great outdoors. Lasted a couple years I know of. Read some Salli Rasberry “Living Your Life Out Loud”
26*discipline.
27GQP/GOP want people to die .
28For those pulling kids from public schools: I hope you will continue to inquire and advocate among your neighbors and other parents.
Asking what they are doing, you may be able to cobble together coherent clusters of kids, get them looking at the same stuff at the same time, and then find ways to have them help one another. While in public schools, I knew a fair amount of history from my interests and extensive reading — and then learned a great deal more because another student was asking me questions. And for several years of my public school experience, I learned a great deal more about math by being able to ask one of my friends who was a math nerd, and he was able to explain things in ways I could grasp immediately, something the teachers were not doing.
You may also stumble over offers like the Surly Professor’s — people willing to help over the internet. I’m contemplating applying to a network of charter schools here in Denver. If I don’t apply or they don’t have a slot that one of their teachers tells me is there, I’d be willing to help middle and high school students in areas I used to teach — speech & debate, writing, reading & listening.
29El Jefe — feel free to pass my email on to anyone reading here who inquires about the cluster of subjects I mentioned in my comment.
30El Jefe, John in Denver, Jet Harris: seems like we have multiple helpful souls here. I’m retired so have more free time than most folks. Also, I promise to not teach or use any of those nifty Texas phrases that could get a kid suspended from school. John’s suggestion about starting clusters of learning is a great one. Locally we had a tutoring “clinic” set up weekly at the public library, although it was cancelled last year during the worst of the shut-down.
In any case, my offer stands so if you need help in the future just let me know. My research area is/was computational science and I’m still on Ph.D. committees in chemistry, physics, astronomy, math, and other STEM fields. But I only claim to be sorta competent in math and computer science.
El Jefe: you don’t have to check with me first, pass on my email to anyone at the Salon who wants to contact me about this.
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