You can’t reopen Florida schools when thousands of children are infected with COVID | Opinion
In a blunt and candid response delivered in the midst of a recharged coronavirus crisis sweeping through Florida, Miami-Dade’s Superintendent of Schools confessed that he can’t “guarantee” social distancing when schools open in the fall.
Of course he can’t.
Kids will be kids — and Miami-Dade’s school district is the fourth-largest in the nation.
That’s a heady combination.
Crowded halls. Crowded classrooms. Crowded cafeterias.
“Part of the [reopening] plan relies on increased social distancing, but we cannot guarantee six feet of distance,” Alberto Carvalho said during a virtual School Board meeting to vote on an opening plan for the fall that — thankfully — gives parents options.
Because the times aren’t right for a return to campus at all.
The hot summer months were supposed to bring less coronavirus infection, but the complete opposite has happened. Florida is seeing record numbers of coronavirus cases — not only in the 18-34 group of asymptomatic super spreaders, but also among children and adolescents.
“Our plan includes the ability to quickly pivot to an online- or distance-learning model should conditions worsen significantly,” Carvalho said.
But, how much worse does it have to get than what we’re experiencing now?
If schools weren’t considered safe when the novel coronavirus made its presence known in early March, they’re most certainly not safe now that we’re seeing stratospheric numbers of COVID-19 infections in Florida.
Thursday, the state set yet another single-day record with 10,000 new cases, and people in Miami-Dade are reporting that testing sites are fully booked.
More than 7,000 kids have tested positive for coronavirus in Florida — and 12 are suffering from a rare inflammatory disease syndrome, known as MIS-C, tied to COVID, according to the state’s pediatric COVID report.
Most are in South Florida, and Miami-Dade in particular, the state’s epicenter for the virus.
More than 7,000 kids have tested positive for coronavirus in Florida. 12 have MIS-C
In fact, the expectation that more children will come down with MIS-C, has led Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to set up a specialized unit to treat the disorder within its renowned Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. And some hospitals, like Jackson and the Memorial System, again have halted elective surgeries in preparation for the renewed coronavirus onslaught.
Even more frightening is that one child and two teens already have died from the COVID-related disease in Florida.
The youngest victim: an 11-year-old boy in Miami-Dade. The other two deaths were a 16-year-old girl in Lee County and a 17-year-old boy in Pasco County.
Miami boy, 11, is youngest Florida victim of COVID-19. He beat other illnesses but not this one.
COVID-19 school reopening plan
Yet the mandate is that we’re going back to school, with some twists.
Parents can either send their children to school five days a week, leave them home for long-distance virtual learning or choose one of two hybrid models that reduce exposure with two block-schedule days in school and two days at home.
They have from July 6-10 to make a choice — without knowing where we’ll be in two months.
Mandatory face coverings
The back-to-school choice calls for mandatory mask wearing, which is great, but neither Carvalho or teachers will be able to force all kids to wear a mask all day long, never mind to stay away from each other.
Surely, it won’t be possible for asthmatic children who already have breathing issues to withstand the mask, or for the younger ones starting out in kindergarten, or even first grade, to understand the danger of contamination.
Miami-Dade Schools will require mandatory masks when school begins
As for social distancing, going to school is a contact sport in its own right.
As awkward as it sounds and looks in drawings, I’m glad the plan calls for plexiglass to be installed to protect teachers and students. But that doesn’t reduce the opportunity for kid-to-kid contamination.
And, as physical as the work of a teacher is, it’s hard to envision how the partition will work effectively. They’re not your cashier at the grocery store.
I’m already hearing from parents who don’t want to send their kids to school in August.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Well, we will send them to school in a pandemic because it’s harder to be safe,’ ” a working mother of two told me. “I do not feel right in my heart sending my kids out there to a mutating, repetitive virus, or getting other people sick. It’s just not right, and I’d rather be broke and focus on their education.”
But I also understand parents who aren’t up to teaching their child Common Core sixth-grade math.
In a recuperating state, every school district in Florida should provide options for parents.
But if infection rates remain on the rise, it’s a fool’s errand to open up schools.
You can’t reopen Florida schools when thousands of children are infected with COVID-19.
