Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360].
Nearly a year after schools across the United States began a massive lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- a disease caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus -- that has affected 41.6 million students, experts say it's not yet time for students to return to the classroom because there is no way to ensure the safety and health of students, teachers, school staff and parents.
This was pointed out by experts, teachers and mothers during a panel discussion entitled: "When can we reopen schools? Seeking Common Ground on a Dividing Issue," by Ethnic Media Services.They also agreed that prior to the return of millions of students in the country, there should be more research on the consequences and repercussions of returning to the classroom, as well as not returning to them.
"The most important thing that needs to be done to reopen schools as soon as possible is safety. I think we have to make sure that black, brown and poor kids are not going to be left out of the steps we take to reopen schools," said Tyrone Howard, professor of education, chair in Family Empowerment Education and director of the Black Male Institute at UCLA.
"Standards are the number one priority in schools. I've always said this is not learning. Our number one priority is for kids to be safe. So I would say that's the number one issue - safety, safety, safety!" she said.
For Louis Freedberg, executive director of EdSource and founding director of California Watch at the Center for Investigative Reporting, more information is needed because "we need to take the CDC's research on safe return to the classroom and see how it applies to our own communities, not take the research at face value.
And, he explained, there is a lack of information about a possible "safe return," especially for those communities where English is not the primary language.
I think that's an additional complication for many of you to the Ation of the research that's being developed and I think there needs to be some focus on that to make sure that research is available in other languages.
However, Akil Vohra, executive director of Asian American Youth Empowerment and Leadership Development (AALEAD), says the issues and questions go beyond the opening of schools to ask "how we are supporting our students to move forward.
He pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the inequities that exist in the Asian American community. "So we're going to come back with more equity issues than before, just opening the school is not going to fix what's going on."
A member of the National Parents Union, Bernita Bradley said that all parents need to be involved in decision-making to create a plan for back-to-school that works for everyone.
"Parents need to sit at the decision-making table. Where the money is going to be allocated. Parents don't need to be detached. There is no plan without the parents," he stressed.
Karla Franco, a parent, explained at the time that, at the end of the day, you also have to think about the parents, because at this time they live under too much pressure and uncertainty about what will happen to their children's lives, and they must also be aware that their children, after returning to school, do not return home with the virus, which will only trigger more problems.
"We have to protect everyone because if we send children to school and the children bring the coronavirus into our homes, who protects us, who will be responsible for that?" he said.
Before coming to all these conclusions, specialist Louis Freedberg pointed out that the issue of the return to face-to-face classes has become a battle throughout the country.
The debate, he said, begins after research shows that children are less likely to acquire the SARS-CoV-2 virus because they produce fewer ACE-2 receptors, which make it easier for the virus to enter human cells and infect them.
He further detailed that according to advances in knowledge of COVID-19, children are used to fighting common colds and their immune systems are better prepared to fight the virus. Research suggests that children are more likely to get the coronavirus at home than at school.
"Transmission of the virus among students is very rare. And research also shows that the risk of transmission in elementary schools is very low, not so in middle and high schools, so there's been a big push to get elementary students back in school," she said.
He stressed that the level of spread of the virus depends a lot on how it has developed in the community, as well as the levels of care used to contain the pandemic, such as the use of masks, social distancing, and hand washing.
In that sense, he said, "having small classes is another reason why it's better to have elementary school students. You can control the classroom and have a smaller number of students as opposed to a high school, where there are thousands of students moving from class to class.
Likewise, he said it will be decisive that for the safe return there are good ventilation systems in the classrooms, and the opportunity for these schools to have sufficient testing to detect a possible almost COVID-19, in addition to teachers being properly protected, as they will be at high risk.
And, he said, there is a serious concern: "the impact of distance education on children. For reports of high rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder due to social isolation.
Today, she noted, children are in a home where parents are often struggling with the impact of new economic stresses due to job losses, coupled with the stress of getting on the Internet and the new way of learning.
In addition, he said there are reports of increased food insecurity, because for many families, school used to be a place where children could count on one or two meals a day, so many school districts are even distributing food.
"The Los Angeles school district announced last week that it has distributed 100 million meals since the beginning of the pandemic, which is extraordinary, but that hasn't been the case in every district in the country. So that's another factor ? in forcing people back to school," he said.
All of the above has been reflected in the poor learning of many students, including those entering kindergarten, where early literacy tests show that there has been a decline.
Similarly, Freedberg noted, there has been a decline in distance learning participation rates, particularly among low-income students, as student absences are higher during the pandemic.
"There are numerous obstacles to going back to school, when you add it up it's pretty overwhelming. The pandemic is at extremely alarming levels, deaths are at an incredibly high level, which makes many people cautious about sending children and teachers back to school," Louis Freedberg stressed.
"Not all parents want to go back, I think most of the focus has been on anxiety, and I fully understand that parents are on edge in many cases, there are districts that have done surveys. In general, black and Latino parents are a little more reluctant and, in some cases, much more reluctant than white and more affluent parents to send their kids back to school. So that's another caveat," she said.
One of the main obstacles to opening schools is the vaccination of teachers. In California this week, the CDC director said schools should reopen regardless of whether teachers are vaccinated, but the teachers' union in California and elsewhere say they won't be immunized again, "and the problem is that the supply is very limited."
Finally, he pointed out that the gap between those who have access to the Internet and devices that allow them to take their assignments continues despite great efforts by the government and private initiative, so there is still much to be done so that everyone can have access to the Internet with the necessary speed to take their courses.
Dr. Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA said, "As we reopen ... I think the number one point that needs to be a big part of this conversation, especially in communities of color, is issues related to the social and emotional well-being of students right now.
He brought this up because, he said, according to a report from the UCLA Center for Health and Policy Research, half of all teens in California reported having some kind of mental health problems in the past year, and a third of those young people said the levels of depression they felt were so high that it weakened their ability to do their work.
"This is a serious problem and I don't think we can get to the issues around learning loss and learning in general until we address the social and emotional well-being part of our students," he said.
He said one of his concerns in reopening schools is that many of them don't have the bandwidth, nor the resources to invest in social workers, counselors and therapists. "So what will happen is. When we reopen the schools, kids will still be suffering from anxiety and depression, and the schools they're going back to won't have the support they need to help them. And this has a particular effect on black children and children of color."
And, he said, "some students become disconnected and shut down, others become more aggressive, more vocal, and often schools, without understanding the root of those factors, tend to expel those students, tend to suspend them, tend to discipline them, and part of what we can't do right now, when our kids are struggling socially and emotionally, when we see that the behaviors are there in the remote space or in the in-person space, is to respond to their pain with additional punishment."
Like Freedberg, he said the problems of learning loss are going to be even more severe in the near future, especially for African-American and Latino communities, who, he said, lag "far behind their white and some Asian counterparts.
To that, he added that there is no rush to return to the classroom "without making sure that teachers feel protected, valued and safe on that journey."
In turn, he said that for many of the students the remote format worked much better for them than the in-person format.
"So as we have teachers who may not feel comfortable going back to in-person instruction. I think distance learning should be here to stay in some form for those students who suffer from high levels of anxiety, for those who suffer from bullying in school," he finished.
Akil Vohra, of the leading Asian-American organization, said he agreed with the other speakers, adding that minority students often lack access to tutors and learning centers that many more affluent communities are taking advantage of during this time.
He added that teachers have observed that students tend to get bored and disengage from the whole process of virtual classes, "It's exhausting to be on screens all day and, as adults, we've been doing it for a long time. It's exhausting for us and for the children.
He added that, currently, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, he said, have seen a significant increase in harassment and bullying, "I think it's part of the rhetoric we've heard from the previous administration - from Donald Trump - about the source of this pandemic."
This, she said, includes verbal attacks, denial of service and physical assaults, "this really puts the well-being of our children at greater risk," she said. "We need to address not only COVID-19 safety protocols in place, but really ensure that schools and districts are taking steps to ensure cultural competency. And the equity agenda is a key part of that decision-making calculus," otherwise, "marginalized API communities will not be part of the 'back-to-school' process and will become invisible."
Bernita Bradley of the National Parents Union also stressed that since the virtual education that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to rethink education in schools.
He said there is no real, concrete plan to explain how children, teachers, and staff will be able to safely return to the classroom.
"Right now we have to figure out what we do to make sure the kids are safe, to make sure the educators are safe," he said.
