Pro-con reopening

Returning

BACK TO CAMPUS

IN LATE OCTOBER before the hy- Prevention, the American Academy of Pebrid plan for January was announced, diatrics, and Santa Clara County Health 64% of Palo Alto High School parents Official Sara Cody are just some supportand students selected, in a survey ad- ers of prioritizing the safe reopening of ministered by the Palo Alto Unified School schools. Both the CDC and AAP cite studDistrict, that they would want to return ies that show that children are low risk, and to school in hybrid form. Clearly, there is that the transmission rates in educational a need within the PAUSD community for settings are low. in-person learning. However, students are at height-

However, once the hybrid schedule ened risk of isolation’s dangerous, even was announced and passed by the school life-threatening effects. According to a board, only 10% of Paly students selected study published in the Journal of the Amerthe hybrid option, according to an update ican Academy of Child and Adolescent Psyfrom Principal Brent Kline. This is because chiatry, enforced isolation increases adolesthe hybrid schedule is atrocious. The classes cents’ likelihood of anxiety and depression. offered students minimal in-person learn- Keeping students home may seem like the ing, and in-person classes — English and safer choice, but at what cost? social studies — were those that function Additionally, children are at an inbest virtually. Classes such as sciences and creased risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation arts, where the quality of the course can- and violence due to shelter-in-place ornot be maintained in distance learning, ders, according to UNICEF. With distance remained virtual. Additionally, the hybrid learning, it is easier for dangerous home plan could only support 30-40% of stu- environments to go undetected because dents, so even if more teachers, who are the students had chosen the hybrid option, they Enforced isolation leading reporters of suspected abuse, are may not have been ac- increases adolescents now only able to catch cepted. The small perlikelihood of anxiety a glimpse of students over Zoom. centage of students and depression. No one signed up that chose hybrid does to do their jobs during not mean that students do not want to re- a pandemic, but COVID-19 is now a part turn. It means that a better plan needs to of our lives, and we must learn to live with be made –– a plan that serves the needs of it. Essential employees, including both of the students. Expanding PAUSD+ is sim- my parents, have been working since the ply not enough. start of the pandemic because others rely

At the school board meetings regard- on them. Thousands of students and famiing reopening, many PAUSD communi- lies depend on PAUSD for their education. ty members stated that benefits of hybrid PAUSD has a duty to provide students with learning were insignificant because the so- the best education they can, and this cancial distancing, the masks and the plastic not be done through online school. dividers would make it hard for students to In-person school is necessary for stusocialize and teachers to teach. Yet, I hang dents’ well-being and the upkeep of their out with friends every week, six feet apart education. With the dire importance of reand wearing masks, and it does not impede turning to school in person, Paly must reour ability to communicate or socialize. open as soon as it is safe to do so even if that

The Center for Disease Control and means a transition mid-semester. v

to school

STAYING VIRTUAL

THE PROCESS OF reopening of changing teachers halfway through the Palo Alto schools has been cha- year while the rest of us will be crammed otic, to say the least. There has into overcrowded Zoom classes. The meabeen overwhelming backlash ger benefits for the slim 10% who actually from students, parents and teachers because want to return are not worth the consethe Palo Alto Unified School District has quences that would fall on the rest of us. made it clear that campuses should open as Beyond students, teachers were hardly soon as county regulations permit it. counseled throughout this process. It’s not

Creating a plan to go back to school fair to hold a teacher’s earnings hostage if while the pandemic rages is a logistical they aren’t comfortable with returning to nightmare. At the bare minimum, Palo school. Alto High School — whether we return in Instead of pushing a hybrid learning January or August plan that leaves no — will have to implement limited Instead of pushing a plan one satisfied, the district should foclass sizes, plastic that leaves no one sati- cus on developing dividers and social distancing guide- sified, the district should a better model of distance learning lines, which will put its weight behind de- and expanding make interacting with peers hard- veloping distance learning PAUSD+, a program providing ader than virtual and expanding PAUSD+. ditional support to learning — largely students who are at defeating the pur- higher risk for poor pose of going back to school. In any plan learning outcomes or face unique challengthat the district proposes, these precautions es in the virtual environment. will be necessary, so it simply doesn’t make The spread of the virus doesn’t just sense to return. stop at us; it can spread to our family and

Throughout this process the school their coworkers. We’re essentially gambling district did not communicate or listen to with lives we don’t have to risk. teachers and students to the extent that It’s clear that the hybrid plan proposed they should have. The Paly and Henry M. and passed by the district falls short in Gunn High School student school board many ways, but it is also evident that these representatives laid out clear reasons as to problems cannot be fixed without further why they wanted to take more time cre- risking the health of our students and facating a new plan that addressed criticism ulty, as many of the issues in the plans are from students and faculty, but were ulti- necessary to address safety or financial conmately outvoted by a group of adults who cerns. don’t have to deal with the risks of going As coronavirus cases rise and Santa back to school. Clara County has moved back to Califor-

If we were to return to school, the nia’s purple COVID-19 tier, we need to district would give the small percentage of continue to remind ourselves of the severity students who want to go back the option of this pandemic. We can’t reopen safely by to, but in doing so, they would disrupt pushing through a half-baked plan. This the schedules and education of the others is our education — and our families’ and who did not choose to. Juniors applying to teachers’ lives — at risk, and we need to college will have to face the consequences be involved in making our voices heard. v