We are asking schools to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on student learning when they’re still in the midst of fighting a highly contagious mutation that’s infecting more children every week.
That is leading to further exhausted and depleted educators. And it’s aggravating parents who are getting calls weekly about their children’s exposures to COVID-positive classmates.
Teachers, parents, students and administrators are part of an experiment to see if schools can safely hold face-to-face classes while the delta variant bears down on children and teens. It’s not going well. The Georgia Department of Health reports more than 1 in every 100 children in the state from the ages of 5 to 17 tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks.
Many education experts want schools to focus on repairing the harm to students from school shutdowns. There is one problem with that. COVID has not gone away. It’s still causing harm and headaches and forcing school staff onto the front lines of the campaign to prevent the delta variant rom shuttering classrooms once again. Georgia still lags in vaccination rates, which puts students and staff even at greater risk, especially in school systems that have refused to mandate masks due to political pressure.
So many students are now quarantining that schools statewide are back to dealing with worrying about whether students have functioning devices, access to hot spots and internet connectivity.
Today, the AJC’s Susan Hogan reports:
Metro Atlanta school districts continue to face a surge in coronavirus cases, particularly in Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth, Gwinnett and Henry counties, according to new data reports.
Fourteen districts recorded more than 6,300 cases over the past week, according to data reports. That number will grow because Clayton County, which has had eight schools go virtual this month, has not posted its data as of noon today.
Case counts in Forsyth County Schools more than tripled over the past week, while in Fulton County they more than doubled. Forsyth remains mask optional. Masks are required in Fulton, but the district is considering a mask-optional campus.
Betsy Bockman, principal of Midtown High School in Atlanta, is among the metro-area school leaders spending 80% of their time on contact tracing and other COVID-related issues, including, in her school, testing hundreds of students and teachers. The case tally in Atlanta Public Schools nearly doubled last week with 395 cases, including 335 students and 60 staff.
Here is a letter that Bockman sent to parents Thursday:
Midtown Parents
Our intercom, phones and internet were out for a good chunk of the afternoon. I need you to communicate with your students about Surveillance Testing tomorrow. We hope to begin testing at 8:45 am. TELL your student if you signed him/her/they up for testing. I call groups of students by last name to come test. We will send runners to the Gym, ROTC classrooms and music wing because sometimes it is difficult to hear in these areas.
Please know we will not be going to get individual students to test if they do not show up when called. Just not possible.
Over the past 10 days I have been doing a huge amount of contact tracing due to positive cases. If you receive an email from me indicating your child was a close contact with a positive case, complete the self-report immediately or definitely before the next school day. That way I can cross your child off the possible quarantine list IF your child is vaccinated. If your child is not vaccinated, your child will be at home for up to 10 days. If you do not respond to my email, I have no choice but to move your child to the “care room” to await your arrival.
Schools have been given no extra personnel to help with this and we are doing an adequate job with trying to keep up, but it is overwhelming. We are a high achieving school trying to manage public health.
I need you to do these things:
1. Check your contact information on Parent Portal now to ensure we have accurate phone numbers and email addresses for you and others you have listed as contacts. You can change information yourself. Please do so as needed. It’s amazing how kids are able to reach parents when we can’t. If your child has a secret number to reach you, the school needs that, too.
2. Respond immediately to emails from me. Yes, some of you have been contacted more than once these past 2 weeks. Please complete the self-report every time. If you indicated your child is vaccinated, you may not get a return email from me. If you hear nothing, your child can remain at Midtown unless he/she/they is showing symptoms. I have to focus on the nonvaccinated close contacts in order to keep everyone safe. Or try to.
3. Sign your child up for the weekly testing. Forms are on the Midtown website. Remind them each Thursday night.
4. Get your child vaccinated. Right now, we have over 50 students who are at home in quarantine (positive cases or close contacts). While we can open Zoom links and provide assignments in Schoology, we are not teaching virtually. We are not quaran-teaching.
After 18 months of survival teaching and learning, the last thing we want is students at home watching on a small Chromebook screen trying to keep up with what is happening in eight classes. Students need to be present and participating, not be a member of the audience.
Another reason to get vaccinated is so that sports teams, clubs, and other activities can resume schedules and programs. We had so many disruptions last year with sports due to positive cases. Parents couldn’t attend sports events. Almost every activity that our students love to be a part of was cancelled, severely limited, or forced to meet and compete virtually. We don’t want to return to that.
Please vaccinate your eligible children. We are a community that cares for all its members — students, bus drivers, parents, faculty, and staff.
Thank you. Back to contact tracing.
Dr. Bockman
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