Schools Need to Reopen Essay Example

📌Category: Coronavirus, Education, Online Education, School, United States, World
📌Words: 1407
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 17 June 2021

Her alarm goes off. It is eight o’clock. She sits up, fixes her hair, and logs on to her first-period class. She sees the faces of her friends and classmates through two-inch-by-two-inch squares. As the teacher calls attendance, she listens to their familiar voices. She misses going to school in person with her friends every day, but this is how her school day has started since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Since then, the decision to reopen schools for in-person learning has been a controversy, not only throughout the state of Iowa but across the entire country and world. Schools need to reopen for the well-being of their students. 

In late February of 2020, schools across the United States were forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Students have been able to stay “in” school because of technology, but they have not been able to truly experience school since then. On January 27, Philadelphia public school students were first eligible to return to school since late February of 2020, but parents and staff have mixed emotions on the return (Graham, K., 2021). Imagine not being able to go to school with classmates for almost a year. Students’ well-being is at risk. It is said that “The plans (for reopening) are further complicated by the district's significant environmental issues” (Graham, K., 2021). Some Philadelphia schools lack basic ventilation, therefore, opened windows and fans must be used to circulate air (Graham, K., 2021). Also, most of the staff in these public schools, close to nineteen thousand employees in total, have not yet received the vaccine, and this serves as a concern to administrators (Graham, K., 2021). Like schools in Iowa, many states are just now or have recently just gained eligibility for teachers and staff to receive the vaccine. Depending on the location, this may be a deciding factor for whether schools can reopen yet. 

At all schools, some students have to deal with a variety of vulnerabilities. Whether they come from low-income families, have special needs, or live in unsafe environments, these students have one safe place: school. Many of their classmates are unaware of these everyday struggles. School is not just for learning. It may be a student’s guaranteed meal, guaranteed hug, or guaranteed warm environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit these students especially hard, making returning to school necessary (Graham, K., 2021). In Kristen A. Graham’s article, she interviews William R. Hite Jr., the Superintendent of one of Philadelphia’s public schools, who spoke on the topic. “Escalating violence and feelings of isolation are all tragic consequences of the pandemic, further threatening the health and well-being of our young people. Resuming in-person learning opportunities is a crucial step to help restore a much-needed sense of familiarity, community, and connectedness for students and families” (Graham, K., 2021). The children of our communities need a safe place. They need to be in school.  

Behavioral issues can also be a problem for working parents with children at home. In an interview, Kristen Graham spoke to the mother of a sixth-grade boy. She stated that “Some kids need more hands-on learning. My son cooperates better when he’s in school” (2021). Young students cannot keep occupied in front of a computer all day long during virtual learning. As a junior in high school, students still find it hard to make it through a few hours. Computers can be draining on the mind. It can be even more difficult when young students see their friends through the screens of their devices. They are not old enough to know what is happening, and they do not know why they cannot see their friends, and that can weigh heavily on youth.  

Though the decision to reopen schools weighs heavily on keeping people safe first, it should not disrupt in-person learning. Although students can develop COVID-19, children of their age usually remain asymptomatic or experience mild illness. Though this group of people spread the virus just as much as any other group of people, proper measures have been taken to reduce the spread (Lordan, R. et al., 2020). Outbreaks in schools are usually linked to community transmission, poor mask mandating, poor ventilation, or poor social distancing (Ronan, L. et al., 2020). To reopen schools, and continue to keep them open, schools must take on a few strategies. 

Schools must perform daily symptom monitoring. At many schools, this involves a temperature scanning device at the front doors of the school. If symptoms are noticed throughout the day, the child must be sent home immediately, must undergo diagnostic testing for COVID-19, and receive negative results for a certain time before returning to school. What do you do about asymptomatic students, though? As stated in an article written by Ronan Lordan and others, “fifteen to fifty percent of children, and ten to thirty percent of adults will either not notice symptoms while their immune systems are fighting off the infection or become infectious one to three days before symptom onset” (2020). Current school-wide diagnostic testing is not practical because testing cannot reliably identify a “silent virus,” and testing is not fast or inexpensive (Lordan, R. et al. 2020). Therefore, in-person learning must be controlled. If the virus continues to spiral out of control and schools cannot regain it, they will have to go back to online learning. 

For most school districts, the preventative measures they have in place have been effective. These measures include all students and staff wearing face masks, social distancing, disinfecting hands frequently as well as surfaces, and sending people home who even experience minimal symptoms (Lordan, R. et al., 2020). COVID-19 is spread through virus-contained liquid particles that disburse from the host while breathing, speaking, shouting, coughing, and screaming, therefore, the distance from the host not only matters but the duration of exposure to the host matters as well (Lordan, R. et al., 2020). Strategies have been put in place in schools to keep track of the duration of exposure. For example, at Pleasantville High School, in Pleasantville, Iowa, teachers are required to keep seating charts. This way if a student was sitting next to another student that was exposed to the coronavirus, or contracted the virus, the teachers will know how long they were sitting next to the exposed student, or if they were wearing their mask properly. If masks are being worn properly, they should reduce the spread by limiting the release and inhalation of droplets and aerosols (Lordan, R. et al., 2020). Arguments aside, masks must still be worn to keep students in school. 

In schools across Iowa, they have made it work. Most students are back to their regular lives with friends, and even playing sports. The entire country has shown drastic improvement since November as well. Recently, Governor Kim Reynolds lifted the mask mandate to be up to the businesses and districts. As Iowans, we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The rest of the country should be able to experience it too. As stated in a press release, Kim Reynolds spoke about the lift of the mask mandate. “I'm not saying, 'Go out there and be carefree and not be responsible, I am saying, 'I trust Iowans to do the right thing.' And I know our businesses will do the right thing, too. They are doing it every day. Our schools are doing the right thing” (Coltrain, N. & Leys, T. 2021). Similar statements were taken from a press release in South Africa: 

Drawing on lessons learned from the 2013/14 Ebola outbreak, a resilient health system is one with the capacity to prepare for and respond to emergencies such as disease outbreaks, maintain core functions during emergencies and learn from the emergency and reorganize as appropriate. One of the essential features of a resilient health system is integration, where diverse actors from inside and outside the health sector, from government and non-government organizations and civil society, work together in a coordinated manner with a designated focal point for such coordination. Integration is best achieved with pre-existing policies and cooperative agreements (Siegfried, N. & Mathews, C. 2020).  

The Ebola outbreak prepared South Africa for the Coronavirus, and the people knew how to deal with the situation and keep their children learning. The United States had a minimal outbreak, and therefore, was minimally impacted. The United States must use the resources of other countries to find ways they overcame outbreaks, so the children of America can continue to build their future lives. 

Students around the world have been kept from their peers for far too long. Schools across the United States have established many preventative measures and strategies that have proven to be effective in keeping students safe in school while controlling the coronavirus spread. Though the topic controversial in places like the Philadelphia Public School Districts, kids deserve to be back in their safe environments to learn. Vaccinated or not, no one knows how long this virus will continue to put lives at risk. With precautions in place, there is no reason students should not be able to experience school, in person, with the friends they will grow up with. 

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