Tuesday, July 7, 2020

town hall meeting

Sometime this week our city council will be voting on a mandatory mask requirement.  I'm waging no bets on how that will turn out.  Interesting enough even if they pass such a requirement in will not apply to schools. 

Last night Ron and I listened to an online town hall meeting with one of our state representatives.  Basically what we learned is that there is no final plan on returning to school.  I understand that this is a very fluid situation that is ever changing but if you are pretty certain school will be open there are just some common sense things you would or should have in place and ready to go.  I think this biggest deterrent is there is no money.  A public school system already gutted financially from years and years of cuts is certainly not prepared to cover the cost of a pandemic.

Wow, twenty-five years ago when I encouraged my daughters to seek degrees in education I never thought it would be a high risk profession.  But from school shootings to pandemics I've changed my mind.  It was bad enough to think they would be expected to shield students with their own bodies during a shooting.  Now they have to fight an invisible enemy.  There are no virus drills for this threat.  Children won't be hiding under desks or in bathrooms to protect themselves from this boogie man.  Teachers can't just lock doors to keep this threat at bay.  And I can assure you that whatever defense they implement it will come out of their own pocket.

And I promise you....if a child becomes infected who do you think will be blamed?  Yep...now this I will bet on!

1 comment:

Florence said...

What a dreadful situation! I can’t imagine what the solution is. Children need an education but at what cost. If I were a parent of school age children, I would probably homeschool for the next 2 years. If I were a teacher, I doubt I would go back to the classroom especially if I had any underlying health issues. But, of course, sometimes there is no choice. What a dilemma!!