This pandemic has revealed the highs and lows of human behavior; this story spotlights the low. What a social paradox for those who represent and supposedly guide a school district to display willful ignorance and/or non-critical thinking and/or calloused sycophancy...
Even if the superintendent doesn't believe in evolution, one can hope he will evolve one day.
Meanwhile, sending supportive thoughts to your daughter and all the students and staff of the district.
So, here is the situation for my daughter who teaches music at a Texas elementary school near Austin.
Her district has 450+ cases of confirmed lab tested covid this week. We know there are any more than that out with covid because absences are huge and tests are hard to come by.
My daughter's school had over 150 students absent today, there are approximately 650 in her school. There were 9 teachers out with Covid. The district dash board only counts 31 students at her school as having covid and 5 teachers. My daughter has received MANY more confirmed covid positive notifications for students then the district has documented on their site for this week. She is seeing half of classes absent in multiple instances. Again there are 9 teachers out this week alone with Covid which is also off from the official n the district total.
One teacher she teaches with tested positive on Sunday. She still feels bad and has a temp just below 100 degrees. She was told by the principle she MUST come in or lose pay because her temp was under 100 degrees. The "5 days" is a new CDC thing now, but only if you are asymptomatic. The district new rules say a staff member must return to work 5 days after symptom onset occurs and with no fever for 24 hours. 99.8 isn't considered a fever.
So, the actual numbers the district is reporting on their dashboard are way under represented and still they are sky high. Teachers are being required to come back even if they don't feel well enough to do so. The superintendent refuses to close any school or have even a grade level go online.
My daughter is 50 - 50 at best on whether she will remain a teacher in the district next year or even if she will complete the year.
@lovendures I couldn’t even bring myself to “like” your post. That Texas school district is such a mess. I think there’s a concerted effort in many red states to suppress their Covid case numbers. Imagine being forced to come back into the classroom while still sick. Horrible decisions are being made and all because of our political divide. I wouldn’t blame your daughter for leaving.
I am having fantasies of off-the-record conversations with newspaper reporters. The Houston Chronicle is pretty liberal. I am unfamiliar with the main paper in Austin. They would jump on the story, I bet, but I wouldn't want your daughter in any sort of jeopardy; she has enough already.
@bluebelle Also a concerted effort to break things -- institutions, public education, a sense of civic-mindedness. So we all become one big Lord of the Flies-type society, except it's the adults acting like savages. It's such utter madness that it's hard to comprehend how long we can go on this way.
Sorry for everyone in the states where gov't is working against you. NY is a cluster-f of infection but at least there is some semblance of not-crazy leadership here. Everyone masking, even on the streets. (Masks, btw, also keep you face warm in the winter.)
@bluebelle @lynnventura @lovendures
I read an article recently about pandemic vs. endemic. One of the points discussed was how, essentially since the flu epidemic of 1918-20, we have remained in an "endemic pandemic" of flu. Up until that point in time, flu never spread worldwide. There would be local, regional outbreaks that would die off. But WWI was the beginning of an era of global travel. Up until then wars were restricted to one continent at a time, and people didn't travel abroad for pleasure at all (except the very wealthy in small numbers). Since then the flu has never really gone away. Every year various strains mutate, new ones emerge then mutate, etc. So it's been over 100 years of having to deal with influenza every winter globally.
The article then went on to predict that Coronavirus SARS (which COVID is a form of) will behave similarly to flu for the next several hundred years. Vaccination, much like for flu, will be key. Human nature being what it is, people will forget to take precautions. And much like flu, the elderly and those with fragile health will die.
@laura-f Thanks, Laura. That’s a good article indeed. Nearly two years ago, Lovendures introduced us to Dr. John Campbell of the U.K. on YouTube. He does a daily video international update on Covid and always presents good data and scientific research. He doesn’t anticipate Covid going away either. I can definitely manage with a yearly Covid vaccine.
It’s good to hear from you again, my friend!
@laura-f Nice to see you posting again. Yup, this things going to be with us for a long time, but the human body will come to recognize it enough that it won't kill nearly as many people as it is now. Like the flu, however, it will still be lethal to some. Yearly shots and anti-virals will become common for those who recognize the threat. The folks who refuse to admit reality will pay dearly.