news,
cu l
storytelling & re, ir tu
“It’s gonna be tough. That’s why it’s such a challenge to start school right now. If you’re having to quarantine such a large segment of your school, it’s gonna be hard to educate.”
TALK JXN
—State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs on Corinth High School’s outbreak on Aug. 4 right after school reopened.
@jxnfreepress
@jacksonfreepress
@jxnfreepress
ce eren rev
As School Looms, Confusion Reigns by Nick Judin
August 5 - 18, 2020 • jfp.ms
6
courtesy UMMC
E
rica Lowell waits for her students to return, and her anxiety waits with her. She is a public-school teacher in Rankin County, speaking to the Jackson Free Press under a pseudonym. In less than a week, on Aug. 10, the majority of Lowell’s students will return for in-person classes. “I am extremely nervous, to be honest with you,” she says, then chuckles uneasily. For a moment, the admission sounds like an apology. “I checked my class sizes … my biggest class has (over 20) students.” Lowell does not teach geometry, but now she performs it in her head, visualizing a setup that spaces her students out to the appropriate distances. “There’s no way,” she admits. “I’ve had to put my desks into groups to fit all my students in the classroom.” Her school, like the rest of the public schools in Rankin County, is opting for the traditional model of learning in the fall, with the majority of students returning for in-person classes. Like most school districts in Mississippi, a virtual option is available for families that choose to keep their children at home. By press time, just over 20% of her school’s student population had chosen distance learning. Lowell’s greatest fear is simple: a chance encounter with an asymptomatic student, then the virus carried home to her family. Her daughter is only 3 years old, usually in the care of her parents, both in their 60s. “They’re in a high-risk group,” Lowell says. Her anxiety has grown with the spread of coronavirus across Mississippi, with infections and deaths exploding in greater numbers with every passing week. Immunocompromised teachers in the Rankin County School District have the opportunity to provide virtual lessons only, but that provision doesn’t expand to an individual like Lowell, who inevitably interacts with the immunocompromised. She has little hope that parents will keep their children out of school after possible exposures. “They send their kids to school with the flu, with strep throat, with pink eye … I know this will be no differ-
On Monday, Aug. 3, a chorus of the state’s top health leaders made an impassioned plea for a delay to the school year in Mississippi.
ent,” Lowell says. Asked if she expects an outbreak at her school, the teacher takes a moment to gather her thoughts, but answers resolutely. “Sadly, I do.” ‘Work Left To Do’ The Rankin district’s reopening plan represents the norm for Mississippi’s schools, a baseline focused on getting as many children as possible to receive the in-person instruction experts agree is most beneficial to their educational attainment. There are contingency plans in place for outbreaks, for individual classes, schools
JXN Landmark Word Search Find these Landmarks! BELHAVEN FARISH STREET JACKSON STATE KING EDWARD LEFLEURS BLUFF MILLSAPS ST ANDREWS STATE CAPITOL SUN N SAND
and for the district as a whole. A shift to a hybrid model, which breaks up students into two cohorts and has them attend school in person on alternating days, could lessen the exposure of mostly full classes across the district. But the swift changes to the reopening plans the district formulated as the coronavirus simmered have not yet materialized as the virus has boiled over across Mississippi. Some districts, including Jackson Public Schools, have shifted entirely to the virtual model, electing to face the challenges of distance learning, network connectivity
and device access rather than the danger of uncontrolled viral spread. In Mississippi, COVID-19 peaked at 1,775 cases on July 30, with a test positivity rate spiking over 25% the same week: the highest in the U.S. by far. Gov. Tate Reeves spent much of the last week of July reviewing the school reopening plans from county and municipal districts across the state. The governor acknowledged he was taking a personal interest in the adequacy of the return-to-school plans, commenting repeatedly that he had both the authority and the willingness
P C Y W I K V X I A M S Q F C K V D I Q T V E T O C P Z O P A Z I G F C K S W K I N G E D W A R D S C S C N G T B R F G W T B W I D J P I N U S G A M I L L S A P S T A N D R E W S I T Y Z P E C T H O S S N G S Q V J L E F L E U R S B L U F F Q P Z Z O T C C H A F T N G N F N L X Q G M H F A H B Y R C O N H X A K W Z R Y C C P E L E Z J S U U N E X A K C L P J I M E A L A K E G Y U C C W H A H W T T D K N H C O V A T C H N K F Y Z O G L D F O A J Q I L I C S M E W O L P W X P L J V S K D O U Y B J Z D M H R V I F W P E F E E O E H X J W U U Z L X G P W Y N I Y Q V M H E O S O N E X A K Z H S H V J W Y U Z
