Reopening of schools

Aristotleded24 wrote:

epaulo13 wrote:

Looks like we're even.

..no we are not. you've been coming at this from a libertarian position..on a left leaning board.  

So different perspectives or me making up my own mind about how I think or feel about something is wrong. Got it.

..nobody is talking about right or wrong. you meant to be provocative and when that happens others react. just like nicky can be provocative and then you react. 

Rural families given little choice when it comes to schooling, parents say

Some parents in rural eastern Ontario say they're being forced to send their kids back to school this fall because online learning simply isn't an option due to where they live.

Jennifer Britton, a mother of three living in Kinburn, on Ottawa's rural western edge, said the family's home internet isn't reliable enough for remote learning.

"We tried online learning [last spring] and we were given as much support as the school could provide," Britton, whose children attend Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) schools, told CBC Radio's All In A Day. 

When the pandemic shuttered classrooms in mid-March and children began learning from home, the OCDSB offered families including Britton's laptops and internet hotspots.

"But unfortunately in areas like mine, which is considered an internet dead zone, you can have all the hotspots in the world and it won't work because [the problem] is the cell signal. So if we don't have that then it's just not effective." 

Britton said her children quickly became frustrated with the poor connectivity and lost patience with online learning.

Last month, CBC Ottawa reported a network of municipalities in eastern Ontario is calling for $1.5 billion to finance something called the Gig Project, which aims to bring high-speed internet to underserved areas in the region.

Britton has lived in rural areas of New Brunswick, Quebec and Nova Scotia, but said for her family, poor connectivity has never been the issue it is in this region. Nor has it ever been so costly — Britton, whose husband works from home, said even with the poor service the family's monthly internet bill is about $800.....

How race, income and ‘opportunity hoarding’ will shape Canada’s back-to-school season

Privileged families are isolating children from COVID-19 in ‘learning pods,’ while racialized and lower-income families are hesitant to return to public schools, transit and communities with unknown risks. Can Canada seize the opportunity to close the gaps in education?

Two weeks before vice-principal Brandon Zoras was to welcome a group of students back to the classrooms at Toronto’s Westview Centennial Secondary School, a message appeared in his LinkedIn inbox from a stranger.

“Hi Brandon, hope you are doing well! I am looking for an experienced TDSB Grade 11 chemistry tutor to coach my son online only (due to social distancing) – to start right away. Please let me know if that is something you (or someone you know) can help my son with. Best regards.”

Irritated, Mr. Zoras groaned and deleted it without replying.

Westview has one of the largest Black student populations in the country and sits in the northwest corridor of Toronto, which has become the epicentre for COVID-19 infections. Many students live in cramped housing, have parents who are essential workers and rely on public transit to get around, all things that contribute to the high infection rate – which is 10 times that of the least-infected parts of the city. The average annual income for residents in the area is $27,984 – half of what it is for Toronto as a whole.

“It makes my heart hurt for the families who can’t afford a tutor or who can’t afford all these additional things,” said Mr. Zoras, a science educator.

Since he began working as an educator 11 years ago, he has seen the way public education funding has been diminished, how families in the system have found ways to privatize parts of their children’s schooling to get what they want. Education advocates say those efforts are making things less equitable for everyone else.

Every year, parents across the country lobby to get their children into advanced-placement classes, buy houses in neighbourhoods that will give them access to coveted schools and fundraise on the school council to bring in technology and high-level arts programming.

Now, with the return to school amidst a global pandemic, those efforts to secure the best for their children, known in sociology as “opportunity hoarding,” have become more overt. The confidence many had in the public-education system has been ripped apart because of reopening plans and it seems no amount of fundraising, private meetings with principals or school council strategizing can bring about the changes many are seeking for a safe return to school.

The result is some of the most privileged public-school families are opting for distance education, hiring personal tutors and forming private learning pods – decisions that are ostensibly made in the best interests of their children, but which will likely cause major rifts across race and class. Those in lower-income communities are also choosing remote learning because they have elderly relatives living with them who are vulnerable to getting sick, they feel a heightened threat from COVID-19 because they are in areas with the highest infection rates and the buildings in which they live pose challenges to getting to school on time in a pandemic.

That families on both ends of the socio-economic spectrum are opting for remote learning exposes cracks that already existed in the system. There’s a threat the most privileged will pull out to customize their own education since they can afford to, while others who are fearful of sending their children back to school but cannot pay for private help are becoming test subjects for a new realm of online learning. As plans are pulled together haphazardly, there’s a concern the divide will deepen.....

Ontario Parent Action Network- Fighting for Public Education

This really concerns us. Why is the staff in the Minister of Education’s office apparently calling workplaces to complain about about doctors, nurses, epidemiologists & health providers publicly sharing their concerns about Ontario’s plan?

[David Fisman is a Toronto doctor & epidemiologist.]

...

Sadly, this does not surprise me at all. There are also reports of teachers being asked by school administrators to take down photos on social media of their classrooms where physical distancing is impossible. It is a difficult situation for teachers to be in.

...

Principal and Vice-Principal follow us to a back-to-school organizing rally for teachers and parents so they could tell the Board what we are up to.

Coronavirus: Class to self-isolate at Caerphilly school after positive test

The pupils at St Gwladys Primary School in Bargoed, Caerphilly, must stay at home for 14 days, although the rest of the school will remain open.

"We fully appreciate this will cause concern to parents and children at the school," a council spokesman said.

Caerphilly has seen 78 cases in the past week, the highest number in Wales.

A walk-in test centre opened outside Caerphilly Leisure Centre on Saturday for people with symptoms to get tested.

The school and council said the parents of all the affected children had been contacted and they are working with the contact tracing system to protect other pupils and the wider community.....

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Stay-At-Home Restrictions, New Poll Finds

A new poll finds most Americans remain united in support of social distancing—with 87% supporting existing restrictions, or even wishing for stricter ones—even as several governors begin to roll back stay-at-home orders, and far-right protests pop up across the country against the restrictions.

..kropotkin posted this in another thread. a 26 year old personal trainer.

..from a 26 yrFormer Powell River resident outlines her COVID-19 affliction

quote:

She said she began to feel the effects of COVID-19 about three days after her exposure. She was notified by the spin studio on the Monday afternoon following the class that there had been a COVID-19 exposure, and by Monday evening, she was feeling “a little bit off.” She went into isolation that night. She was tested for COVID-19 on the Wednesday, less than a week after the exposure.

By the time she was tested, she was having trouble breathing. She called Alberta Health Services and was advised she needed to go to emergency, so she went straight to the hospital after calling 811. She was tested at emergency and it took fewer than 24 hours before she heard a positive diagnosis.

Her boyfriend also was tested, but his results came back negative.

While Oele was sitting in emergency, she said she was not fighting for breath but she had a feeling of heaviness in her chest. She said when speaking, she would be taking in a deep breath after each sentence. She said that was the only symptom she had up until that time, other than a runny nose.

While waiting for her COVID-19 test, Oele said she was rocked with a fever, chills and a headache.

“When I came home, I pretty much just fell asleep and then I was sleeping all day Thursday,” said Oele. “I pretty much knew that I had it. There was no thought in my mind that I randomly picked up a sickness. When Alberta Health Services called me and told me that I tested positive, I had kind of come to terms with the fact that I had COVID-19.”

Oele said her thinking was that she was in a demographic where she would be okay, so she was preparing for the worst but expecting the best.

“I’m very lucky that was the case,” she said. “When they told me I was positive I felt scared but also prepared.”

Oele didn’t expect her isolation to be so strict. She said she is very fortunate in that she has a bedroom with an en suite attached, so she did not leave her 200-square-foot space for the full length of the quarantine.

“I was stuck in the bedroom and the only time the door was opened was for food,” said Oele. “When it was open I had to wear a mask and anything was allowed to come in, but nothing was allowed to leave, so I had garbage bags that I had sealed with my plastic cutlery and paper plates.”

Contracting COVID-19 turned Oele’s life upside down. She said the worst period was the Thursday and Friday after exposure.

“My fever was constant,” she said. “I’ve had bad flus in the past but I genuinely felt like I’d been in a car accident. It took everything out of me to just stand up and go to the bathroom. I was sleeping about 16 hours a day and the only thing that would wake me up was when my Advil wore off. I would have such a severe headache.”

On the following Saturday, just a little more than a week after exposure, she began to feel better, but the breathing difficulty intensified. She said she was so fortunate that she never got to the point where she was actually gasping for air. Breathing was laboured, although it never hurt. Oele said it felt like something was pushing on her chest.

She said going from being so physically fit to not being able to stand for more than five minutes was shocking and made breathing so much harder.

Recovery is a slow process and Oele, more than a month later, is still dealing with a lot of after-effects. She’s been out of quarantine almost three weeks nowand feels about 80 per cent. Oele said her taste receptors are pretty much gone, as is her sense of smell. She still has trouble taking long walks with her dog, and with any uphill or stairs, she has to take breaks.....

Ontario Parent Action Network- Fighting for Public Education

You may have seen Conservative MPPs pumping out upbeat back-to-school social media videos featuring spotless classrooms and distanced desks. Videos like this one: https://twitter.com/vijaythanimpp/status/1303430115691565056

Turns out, they’re NOT using actual Ontario schools, but stock footage found on the internet that they’ve paid for with our tax dollars! Stock vid here: https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/group-of-children-with-face-mask-back-at-school-after-covid-19-quarantine-and-lockdown-learning-bklwiag3ukawwn9qu

There are definitely going to be high school students in different cohorts falling in love.

The pandemic is reshaping our sex lives. Is cybersex our future?

As school sex education programs have been cut back and replaced with an abstinence-only standard under the Trump-Pence administration, the LGBTQI community has picked up the slack developing curricula and resources to guide young adults into sex-positive and safe sex life choices.

Today the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario released a report showing that Doug Ford is sitting on billions of unspent federal covid related funds.

Crowded classrooms will definitely fuel the second wave we are currently dealing with, potentially shutting down our economy.

We don't understand why Ford just won’t spend the money for smaller class sizes. Smaller class sizes will protect our kids, education workers and the economy.

Dear Doug, spend the money and protect Ontario.

Here's the full report for those who want to read it: https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/fed-prov-response-2020

..was only able to access this page via a private window

Coronavirus cases spike among school-age children in Florida, while state orders some counties to keep data hidden​

 One month into the forced reopening of Florida's schools, dozens of classrooms — along with some entire schools — have been temporarily shuttered because of coronavirus outbreaks, and infections among school-age children have jumped 34 percent. But parents in many parts of the state don't know if outbreaks of the virus are related to their own schools because the state ordered some counties to keep health data secret.

Volunteers across Florida have set up their own school-related coronavirus dashboards, and one school district is using Facebook after the county health department was told to stop releasing information about cases tied to local schools.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has pushed aggressively for schools to offer in-person classes, even when Florida was the hot spot of the nation, and threatened to withhold funding if districts did not allow students into classrooms by Aug. 31. In the state guidelines for reopening schools, officials did not recommend that coronavirus cases be disclosed school by school. In fact, the DeSantis administration ordered some districts to stop releasing school specific coronavirus information, citing privacy issues.

quote:

Florida school districts began opening in early August, and by mid-month about half the state’s 4,500 public schools had students in their buildings. Three large districts were permitted to stay online because of high coronavirus infection rates — those of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Parents could choose between keeping their children at home or sending them to school, and about half of the states’s 2.8 million K-12 students opted to return to bricks-and-mortar classrooms.

Since Aug. 10, at least 1,210 students and teachers have been sent home to quarantine because they were exposed to the novel coronavirus, according to the Florida Education Association, the teachers union.

The Florida Department of Health reported that 10,513 children under age 18 have tested positive since schools started reopening for in-person teaching, an increase of 34 percent. The state is not saying how many of those children were in school or doing remote learning.