My Children Won't Be Returning to School in 2020
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Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash
This pandemic is impossible for everyone, but I’m starting to believe the only way to maintain some semblance of sanity is to change our timelines and expectations. Living week to week or month to month is exhausting.
I know. Like many people, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for months.
But as the number of coronavirus cases in my home state of Florida hit a huge spike in recent weeks, I was finally forced to shift my perspective. I believe there is no “end” before there is an effective vaccine that is widely administered. And even that won’t be a true end, more like a light at the end of a tunnel.
Our state and national leadership have failed miserably. The collective action of citizens across the country bought the government time to make plans, streamline testing, and create a safe environment for children to return to school. They completely dropped the ball. They attempted to wish or manipulate the virus away, then they stoked ridiculous culture wars around masks and other commonsense safety measures, and finally, they threw up their hands and said, more or less, “There’s nothing we can do. We just have to live with the death and suffering.”
Of course, other countries and continents have proven we didn’t have to just live with it. Countries all over the globe that were hit hard have returned to some modified semblance of normalcy. Meanwhile, we have been left to fend for ourselves. My sadness has shifted toward rage in the past few weeks, but I suppose that doesn’t help anything at this point.
My children won’t be returning to school in 2020. We will be choosing a virtual option when the new school year starts in August. This was a relatively obvious decision that was only further solidified when I watched the school board meeting and one of the board members said she liked to rely on “medical data, not emotion” and then said “we just don’t know…we could wake up tomorrow and there could be no cases.”
Escaping school almost doesn’t seem adequate. Perhaps the school systems on the moon are more reasonable.
Because I’m a stay-at-home parent who does freelance work remotely and my wife is a nurse who works three twelve-hour shifts per week, we have flexibility that many parents don’t. My earnings will almost certainly decrease, but we can get by financially. And I feel like since we have the option to keep our children home, we should take it.
Perhaps it will reduce the risk, if even by an infinitesimal amount, for teachers and for children and families who have no other choice but to return to in-person schooling.
I hate that my children will miss out on their school community for another semester or school year. It makes me sad to think about taking our traditional first day of school pictures in the driveway and then heading back inside our home. We still have no real plan for what our 4-year-old will do. She would’ve been starting school (voluntary pre-school) for the first time.
The whole situation is clearly less than ideal, but I don’t see any viable alternative. I can’t envision a way for our schools to open and stay open safely. I fear for the teachers and staff. We should not be putting them in danger like this. It is a complete disgrace.
And even putting the safety issues aside, school will be a logistical nightmare. What will happen when a student or teacher (or more likely, several) tests positive within the first week or two of school starting? This seems inevitable, and I have seen no explanation for how this would be handled.
Our oldest son is very prone to getting fevers on a semi-regular basis. Every month or two, he gets sick and no one else in the family does. So, thinking ahead, if he were in school this year and we were to follow health and safety guidelines, he could miss two weeks or more of school every month.
Now, multiply my son by 800 students in a school. Every runny nose or fever now must be taken extremely seriously. The more you think about all the possibilities and scenarios that are almost certain to play out, operating a school where the virus is running rampant seems completely untenable.
I wish it didn’t come to this, but we are here now and the only thing we can do is move forward. And shift our expectations. Our local hospitals in central Florida are practically full and there is no end in sight.
It’s going to be a long haul, and as miserable as it is to acknowledge, we are just getting started.
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