An Educator's Plea: A Case for Distance Learning for Fall 2020

Let's face the reality. We cannot go back into the classroom in the fall. The new school year is just around the corner and the number of COVID cases hasn't even dropped. In fact, it's been spiking with record numbers on the daily. Trump and DeVos want schools to fully reopen, but they have no plans beside "schools have to reopen." There is no way to guarantee student and staff safety. My state of California is rolling back reopening plans and yet we're still pushing for schools to reopen? It makes no sense. It's unrealistic for so many reasons. We have no plans to reopen schools SAFELY! So many unanswered questions. 

Unrealistic Expectations. It's a Mess!

Honestly, I believe most, if not all, states have absolutely no plans. It makes zero sense to go back. We closed schools in the country when we had about 1000 cases back around March 17th. As of July 14th, we are at 3.35 million confirmed cases and over 135,000 deaths. That is more than a 3000% increase in 4 months! It makes absolutely ZERO sense that Trump and DeVos want us to go back. Trump threatened to pull funding unless we reopen schools. What funding? How much more funding does the government plan or threaten to cut? This country has stripped so much away from public education already. How many educators have spent their own money for work? I spend on average at least $500 to $1000 every year to supplement my nearly non-existent supply budget.

My county came out with school reopening guidelines. It created so much confusion. Instead of the districts and schools within the county to work on a uniformed plan, districts interpreted the guidelines on their own, leading to a wide range of different plans. This created much frustration and uproar, especially teachers who felt their concerns were ignored.

Personally, I laughed when I skimmed through the guidelines. They all sound great on paper...but whoever wrote them must be out of touch with reality. Let me share a few of these expectations that made me laugh. 

Classroom Settings:

• Distance teacher and staff desks at least six feet away from students to minimize adult-to-child disease transmission (Have you seen how big classrooms are??? When was the last time these people have entered a classroom???)

Cleaning and Maintenance:

• At least daily, and more frequently if feasible, clean and disinfect frequently touched hard surfaces. (So now teachers have to clean too? Daily? I teach high school so I'd have to clean after every single period. Who's paying for the cleaning supplies? Who is helping me clean? In some districts, if teachers are doing the cleaning that can become a labor dispute since we're doing the custodial staff's duties)

Monitoring:

• Post signs at all entrances instructing students, staff, and visitors not to enter campus if they have any COVID-19 symptoms. COVID-19 symptoms include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, recent loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.  (Growing up, my mom would still send me to school even if I told her I'm not well. It was almost always the school that sent me home. Anecdotally and hypothetically, how many parents will just give their children a Tylenol to lower their temperature and send them on their way? )
• All students and staff should be screened for symptoms each day (Logistically how much time will this take?)

COVID-19 Testing & Reporting:

• ​ Asymptomatic non-household close contacts to a COVID-19 case should remain at home for a total of 14 days from date of last exposure even if they test negative. (Unless I missed it in my skim, I didn't notice in the guidelines if teacher's sick days will be docked off for self-quarantine. I only get 10 days a year. Just having to self-quarantine once will use up all my sick days and more. So who is covering my sick days? What happens if it's multiple times? Also, if I am exposed and have to self-quarantine, wouldn't all my students and all those people they came into contact with should also self-quarantine in case?)

They all sound great on paper, but logistically it's near impossible to ensure these are all properly followed. Also, another important question is WHO IS FUNDING ALL THIS??? My county is only providing cleaning supplies for the first 60 days. What happens on Day 61? If my district can't afford it, do we just close schools again? There goes Trump threatening to cut funding to education when we already have problems getting funds in the first place. 

​Educators in the classroom have known for years that we're underfunded. It's a broken system. We have to ask for donations. In fact, I get in trouble when I ask for donations. All this talk of going back and no one is focusing on safety. Yes, on paper there's all these safety guidelines, but WHERE'S THE MONEY? I buy whiteboard markers out of my own pocket! Will I have to ask parents to donate PPE?

Educators DO Want to Go Back, But We Want to Do It SAFELY!!!

Every single educator I know wants to go back, but we want to go back SAFELY and right now there's nothing on that. There's just an expectation to send students and staff back with no plans, sending us to our possible deaths.

People are confusing "we want to make sure it's safe so your child, their classmates, or their teachers don't die" with "educators being lazy and wanting to keep schools closed." What happened to all that teacher appreciation we saw on the news when schools first closed? Now people in government are trying to make martyrs out of us.

Also, I saw some social media thread with people saying that teachers just don't want to go back so they can collect their unemployment. Umm...Schools PHYSICALLY closed, but teachers kept working the entire time. There was no way I could've qualified for unemployment. In fact, I've been working almost every day this summer without a break. My calendar since summer started has been booked with endless school meetings. I've been trying to write this for the past week, but I keep pushing it off because I had meetings. 

People are confusing "we want to make sure it's safe so your child, their classmates, or their teachers don't die" with "educators being lazy and wanting to keep schools closed."

Look. I'm not trying to shirk away from my duties as an educator. I miss my students, but honestly I am not comfortable going back into the classroom without at least the following:

• Realize that staff are human beings and also have families. Students are important, but staff have our own health concerns. What of the 65+ yo science teacher? Or the 28 yo teacher with a preexisting condition? Or the 32 yo counselor who lives with their elderly at-risk parent? My teacher friend's family contracted COVID19. She's recovering; her mom didn't 
• Proper safety procedures AND training. And I don't mean here's a 20-slide PowerPoint. Read it. Let's face it we have students who don't read directions. We have colleagues who do the same thing we complain about!​
• Restricted class sizes
• Guaranteed disinfecting and cleaning supplies that DOES NOT come out of a teacher's pocket! Whose providing the rest of the school year? Do I have to beg parents for donations? I actually get in trouble if I ask parents for donations. If I can't even find disinfectants in stores, how will they??
• Districts in the area should be on the same/similar plan. Districts in the area shouldn't be on a wide range of plans. Why are some hybrid? Other distance learning? And a few going back traditional???

The list goes on. Classrooms are already petri dishes for germs before all this.

We have 10 pots & only 6 lids to cover. Opening schools without careful planning and guaranteed funding streams for all those things asked is absolutely premature. Don't rush it just because you can drop your kids off so you can go back to work. Hybrid models will have to be carefully planned. Schools are not daycare centers. We're not babysitters (or we should just charge the babysitter hourly rate PER child). Yes, the economy will take a hit, but the economy's going to be fine and work itself out in the end.

We will see educators walk away from their positions because we're being sent back into the trenches without even proper equipment. That was already a teacher shortage, except now there's a pandemic to top it all off. Some educators are choosing early retirement than going back. And overall, we feel ignored in all these reopening decisions.

Again, we want to go back SAFELY! But you know what. We can't go back. It's just not safe. We closed schools at 1000 cases. We've topped 3.35 million this week. 3000%+ increase in 4 months and we think it's safe? School reopening meetings are taking place on Zoom? Think about it. The planners are meeting VIRTUALLY for their safety to talk about reopening schools IN-PERSON!

The risks have been calculated and all factors included, right? Makes no sense to me. Reopening schools now is pretty much for economic reasons or people have politicized the pandemic and think it'll disappear after the November elections. Trump thinks Democrats hate education. Strange because I thought schools are liberal socialist indoctrination machines, so shouldn't you want to keep kids out? It's absolutely 100% for health reasons!

Every single educator I know want to go back as much as anyone. We all know that students learn better with in-person interaction and instruction. They thrive on those relationships. Distance learning sucks. I hate it. It's not equitable.

Inequities of Reopening Schools

I've been personally and professionally conflicted over this. I have my fair share of students from low-income families. I've been reaching out and directing them to community resources. Distance learning is not equitable to our vulnerable and struggling communities that lack access, such as technology. Food security is an issue. Some students are in toxic households. If a student lives in a 2BR apartment with 10 other people, where can they find a quiet and safe place to learn?

On the other hand, if we open schools and offer a choice, who will be the ones most likely to go back? Most likely students from vulnerable communities while the privileged can keep their kids at home and safe. Now those students are being put at risk of exposure and possibly bringing it back home. There are educational equities to distance learning, but also opening schools will further expose our vulnerable populations to potential death. Honestly, I have no answer to this, which is another reason why we can't go back without proper planning. We need funding! What's the point of getting an education if the ones you're teaching and the ones who are receiving it are incapacitated, or worse, dead? It's extremely frustrating.  

I can't help but refer to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs here. ​We need to secure students and the communities' physiological and safety needs before we can even move up the pyramid. 

​We have to stop comparing our country to other countries when it comes to reopening. Most of those countries have national plans. Trump left it to the states. California closed up. Texas and Florida did their own thing and now they're seeing spikes daily. Wearing a mask and the very existence and severity of COVID-19 are political issues. This country is so hyped up on the notion of "freedom" as if we're the only country that has freedom.

DeVos said that children have a lower contraction rate than any other part of the population. Children have been out of schools since March and stuck at home. How many of them got tested? There's no real data.  The only way we can get real data is by sending children back. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo said it right, "We're not going to use our children as guinea pigs."

I have no answers to all this. Instead I have so many questions. I feel helpless. I've just been expounding my thoughts here. I want to end on the note by providing a list of "Reopening School" questions in the next section. ​

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Questions That Should Be Considered & Answered Before We Return to the Classroom

On a concluding note, below is a LONG list of questions I found on social media. I've added a few of my own. If someone can let me know who the original author is, that would be great so I can give credit to that person for coming up with this amazing list. These questions should be addressed and answered if any schools plan to reopen. 

• If a student I am in contact with, is in contact with someone who tests positive, will I need to quarantine? Shouldn't everyone that the student came into contact in self-quarantine?
• If so, do I lose 14 sick days? Who is covering it?
• How will immune-compromised teachers or students be affected?
• Will we be required to lose sick days if we test positive?
• How will social distancing work in classrooms with more than 10-15 students?
• If a teacher's child needs to quarantine will the educator parent be required to use their sick days?
• Will the state attendance laws be changed so students/families aren't compelled to come to school sick?
• Will teachers need to sign a waiver to work? Are schools and district legally liable for knowingly sending students and staff into harm? 
• Will students sign a waiver protecting teachers in the event a student gets sick while in their class?
• What happens in buildings with no AC and no windows to open?
• What happens to fire drills?
• What happens to active shooter drills?
• What about evacuation drills? A lot of the drills require close proximity. 
• Guidelines recommend keeping doors propped open. Will COVID-19 precautions overrule active shooter precautions?
• Who will be responsible for cleaning shared materials and supplies like computers? Who will be providing them?
• If the school runs out of cleaning supplies, do we close the school?
• Virus particles are circulated from toilet flushing. School toilets do not have lids. Who will clean the bathrooms - including the ones in classrooms - after every use?
• If teachers have children in other districts that choose different models of school with split sessions or etc., how would that be handled?
• What accommodations will be made for educators/their families?
• What about classes/grade levels that require close contact and collaboration for content and social-emotional development?
• What happens when parents choose to home school their child(ren) and then enroll after the district’s deadline?
• What safety measures will be put in place for non-teaching staff such as school counselors? Some office are not large enough for social distancing.
• How will we address the mental health needs of our students in a safe and effective manner?
• For someone who might be asthmatic and has an office with no windows and poor ventilation, wearing a mask all day will be impossible. What options will they have to maintain their full-time status?
• Will teachers be provided with the necessary PPE?
• What about masks for unprepared students?
• Will we be provided with the necessary cleaning products? Who is paying for them?
• What if a teacher or assistant needs to use Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) with a student?
• What about teachers, staff, or students in behavioral rooms?
• If students are allowed the option to stay home, can teachers who are compromised, or live with someone compromised, also opt to teach from home?
• Why are students given an option to not wear a mask?
• If students are required to wear a mask in retail stores (regardless of social distancing), why are schools different?
• Who is going to pay for all the PPE and cleaning supplies? For me, I teach high school. Imagine that when students leave a class the desks will have to be wiped down every period. I spend an enormous amount of money already on classroom supplies. I cannot afford to spend more and I do not believe I have to spend money out of my pocket if the district mandates us to go back into harm's way.
• Can I require students to have all of that even if we are Title 1?
• What will be the protocol for Pre-K and special educators? We provide playtime, reading time, and also toilet training.
• What will be the transition for these types of classes?
• How will teacher evaluations be handled?
• Will we be able to use every precaution in our classroom to clean surfaces including necessary cleaning agents?
• Will there be an option for parents to continue remote learning (following the school academics)?
• What will the protocol be for a classroom with no sink and the requirement to monitor bathroom numbers in situations where many students share a single bathroom?
• Who is building the barriers between the students if there is not enough room to space them 6 feet apart?
• How will my health be protected if students do not have a mask?
• If a student is not wearing a mask then will the teacher help that student from a 6-foot distance, as otherwise the teacher will be put at risk?
• Will face shields be an acceptable face covering for students and staff?
• Many teachers travel between schools. How will this be handled?
• Will districts be provided the funds to hire more teachers so that there will be enough "manpower" to teach both in-person and remote classes?
• If we get substitutes, shouldn't the substitutes be tested first? Many subs roam across different school sites and district. This can expose students and staff. 
• Will there be additional teacher/staff lounges available so that adults can also be distanced while eating?
• How will events like Back to School Night and parent-teacher conferences be handled?
• What about specialists who teach every child in the school or multiple schools? How can we safely teach hundreds of students each week?
• If teachers are in class instructing students all day, who is responsible for online instruction for the students whose parents choose to keep them home?
• What if a teacher travels between different classrooms and has no control over the classroom setting from room to room?
• What will happen with classrooms that we set up with tables and have flex seating like bouncy balls? There is no way to spread out tables or quickly sanitizer those seats between the switching of classes.
• What will be done for older buildings without air conditioning on hot humid days and the old radiators that blast lots of dry heat in the winter to accommodate those students and faculty members who are trying to breathe through a mask?
• Will there be temperature checks upon entry?
• What will happen with students who are sent to the nurse with fevers or other COVID-19 symptoms?
• Will districts provide classrooms with amplification systems for hearing impaired students to hear their masked teachers?
• What about hearing impaired teachers who rely on lip-reading and will have a hard time hearing both students/staff who are wearing masks?
• How can these teachers be accommodated?
• We have class sets of textbooks for a lot of our courses, how is the sharing/cleaning of shared resources being handled? (Desks, books, pencil sharpeners, art supplies, etc.)
• What about art teachers? How do they share supplies? Even if they have to divide up the supplies they will need a bigger budget to ensure each child gets all supplies AND storage for each class/child's materials.
• How are they going to implement social distancing with SPED?
• Will schools be hiring more school nurses, custodial staff, and counselors?
• Are schools prepared to have enough psychologists and support staff available when and if a teacher, staff, or one of their fellow students die?
• Will there be specialized paid training for staff to prepare before the first day of school for all these changes?
• If a staff member or student comes down with a fever will they be required to get tested for COVID-19 and provide the school with documentation of the results?
• How should science labs be handled? A lot of lab equipment are shared.
• How will grading work (especially if some students remain at home)? Online assessments vs in-person assessments are entirely different.
• Do families need to sign waivers of disclosure if they’ve been exposed, tested, results?
• Do we violate privacy laws by asking?
• What about staff bathrooms?
• Will someone be sanitizing them in between uses or will the staff members be required to do so?
• Can teachers who have breathing issues use face shields in place of masks?
• If we aren't comfortable going to school to teach once plans are laid out in our district, can we opt to do so remotely?
• Will there be an aide on every bus to monitor distancing and mask use, since the bus driver will be focused on driving?
• Will there be a cap on sick day usage for older teachers who have accumulated more than 50 days? 75? 100?
• Will individual teachers be allowed to require that students wear masks in their classroom?
• Will bathrooms have monitors to ensure only X amount of children enter at a time?
• If a student tests positive, what does that mean for the rest of the students in the class? Do all students have to quarantine and any other people they have came into contact with?
• Will all specialists/support staff still push-in?
• Will they push-in to multiple classrooms?
• Will fans and/or AC units be installed in all classrooms to ensure the air is circulating and the room stays at a decent temperature for those who are wearing masks?
• Will there be a nurse in the building every day?
• If students are allowed the option to stay home, can teachers who are compromised, or live with someone compromised, also opt to teach from home?
• If a student on our class tests positive, will we be told?
• Will there be dual offices for nurses, one to handle COVID-19 symptoms and another to handle first aid and other health issues?
• If students pretend to cough or sneeze on each other or a staff member, how should this be handled at a disciplinary level?
• How will physical education classes happen?
• Students are being encouraged to wear their gym clothes all day and that comes with hygiene issues. In addition, PE classes are some of the largest in the school and are usually made up of multiple grade levels. If students can’t share equipment what will the class expectations be?
• If class is held outdoors what happens in bad weather?
• When it comes to younger students, our curriculum is play-based and hands-on. How will play-based learning work? (Blocks, games, manipulatives, puzzles, kitchen, puppets, play-doh, cars, etc)
• Also, who will be required to clean all these? And how often?
• Are we cleaning and disinfecting classrooms?
• How do lockers work? In many buildings students share lockers (or they are on top of each other). If they opt out of using them, do they just carry around a book bag all day congesting the halls even more?
• If split sessions are used to help with social distancing/decrease class sizes, will the minimum number of hours be waived to count a half-day of instruction? For example, if a half-day is 4 hours and one group of students attends in-person morning session while a different group attends the afternoon session, that will go past the normal contractual teaching hours.
• Will sign language interpreters be required to wear masks? Facial expressions and mouth morphemes are a big part of ASL; some students rely on lip-reading to support their understanding of sign language.
• Will we be following guidelines provided by groups like EdTA (International Thespian Organization) for activities like theater and band?
• Is it possible that for the duration of the pandemic state testing is suspended and the monies school districts allot for testing be diverted to funding district readiness?
• Schools do not permit students to wear hats, hoods and the like because student identity is concealed; if students can not be socially distanced, masks are required, for health reasons. Student faces are concealed which poses a safety issue within the dwelling.
• If people are forced to go back to school and they and/or family members dies from the virus, can they sue the district considering they knowingly sent us into harm?
• If school reopening meetings are taking place virtually in consideration of the participants' health, then why are we discussing the reopening of schools???
    

The fact that there are so many questions demonstrate that we are completely unprepared to go back to school. Until we figure them out, we must do distance learning. We have to protect our children and educators' lives. 

Please stand with us and support us just as we support your children.