What have we come to? This COVID-19 is getting to everyone, especially the teachers, students and parents of our community, trying to figure out whether it is safe to start in-person school or continue to do virtual lessons.
I have followed the answers to questionnaires sent out to parents and teachers. Four options were given and some 34 percent of parents opted to go to virtual and 34 percent to a combination of virtual and in-person classes. School personnel went out of their way to make a decision most parents and teachers could live with. The main premise was to follow the standards set by the state based on how many people per day died and were infected.
The school board members (all volunteers and elected by you, the parents in the community) and the new superintendent, Kelly Glass, and new principals spent numerous hours poring over these data and trying to follow the ever-changing positions of the governor.
Evidently, a number of parents feel they have a right to interfere and upset the carefully set standards by cajoling and threatening Ms. Glass and school board members, by demanding to start in-person school.
Teachers are afraid; they look at data out of Georgia where a high school with 1,100 students had to go into quarantine after just one week of school. Teachers have to make a decision: Go to work or get fired. It is known that children over the age of 10 can transmit COVID-19 to teachers, parents, grandparents and their peers.
We need to stay levelheaded and join together to prevent our children from becoming victims of this COVID-19 disease and its disastrous consequences. We have an obligation to keep our town safe.
