Back and Forth

Well. Numbers are rising around the country and in NYC. The 3% school closure threshold has been threatening for the last few days, but there are many loud complaints to keep schools open, that they’re safe, etc.

My main question for the Mayor: Was it worth it?

School has been open a little over two months. There are red, orange and yellow zones in different levels of closure at different times. There is the ongoing quaratining of different classrooms. Many students still don’t have devices or WiFi. Couldn’t our resources have been used in a more productive way?

The surge in cases does not appear to be coming from schools (probably since there are so few students in attendance on a given day with the majority of the students remaining fully remote even as our system is still “hybrid.” Rather, the surges are related to gyms and indoor dining. Shocking…places where groups of people have to be indoors for a long period of time, and in the case of indoor dining, unmasked. Now, I get that this has been a hard year for everyone. These small businesses can’t survive without being open since the government can apparently ram through a Supreme Court Justice, but can’t help people whose livelihoods have been so adversely affected by this situation.

My basic point is this: shutting down schools in NYC at this stage of the gave is purely for show if there are no other restrictions. This uncertainty has everyone on edge and is not good for students who wonder, “Can I go to school today?”