Coronavirus School Closures

At the last board meeting, the Hollidaysburg school board voted for students to go back to school full face-to-face, five days a week. This is a dangerous measure that will jeopardize the safety of students and the community. For the week ending January 8th, Blair County was classified in the "substantial" transmission level, the highest of three levels. The PA Department of Health recommends that counties in the substantial level adopt a fully remote learning model. Social distancing will not be possible if the entire student body is in school at the same time. This is especially true in the cafeteria, where students will have to take their masks off to eat. There is simply not enough room for everyone to be spread six feet apart. Even during the hybrid model, students were not always six feet apart in classes. It would be impossible for students to be properly distanced in a full in-person model. The lack of social distancing, in addition to putting students and staff at risk, would also cause a drastic increase in the amount of quarantined students. A single student testing positive could easily cause dozens of students to be quarantined. If the school district ends remote instruction, quarantined students will not be able to attend class for two weeks. This would drastically and negatively impact educational outcomes. Additionally, current school policy allows students and teachers to wear face shields instead of masks. This is against CDC guidelines, which state that "CDC does not recommend using face shields or goggles as a substitute for masks." Face shields do not provide an adequate level of protection and unnecessarily put students and staff at risk. At the school board meeting Wednesday, every physician who called in during public comment opposed full face-to-face. We should trust the advice of our medical professionals. Students should not be asked to put the health of ourselves and our loved ones at risk just to get an education. We, as students of the Hollidaysburg Area School District, refuse to go back in person and ask that the school board reconsider their decision.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACROSS THE USA LIKE LAUSD  are returning and forcing Teachers and Students to in person school in Now..either full-time or with a hybrid model.  This is too soon.  The dangers that caused school closures haven’t been abated: They’ve gotten worse.   We request: 1) Extended and increased government funds for families to ease their childcare, housing, healthcare and other needs stemming from this crisis- and the need to stay safe at home.2) A Distance Learning model that encourages compliance and participation by being made mandatory- not optional as it was this past semester.  3). A 3 month ‘safe period’ between the decision to return to in person classes and the actually return.. to guarantee the protections from C-19 that officials say may work actually do work because we can observe them at work in all other sectors of society- before we put students, teachers, our children, families and friends at risk.Children’s health  should not be gambled away in the name of a hurried and misplaced return to normalcy.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Staying home is the best preventative medicine.   Families need government financial assistance to ease the burden of childcare etc.., We urge government to extend payments to families.  We urge those in power to continue Distance learning at least through Spring of 2021. Distance learning, will be more effective when the district mandates that the class work is mandatory- not optional as it was this spring.  Teachers, ask for more resources for Families and themselves To ensure this.  We should feel safe for 3 months straight before we go back to in person learning.  The health and hopes of children shouldn’t be hinged on a roll of the dice ‘hoping’ that the virus will go away.  The hope of our students future should be founded on the strength of patience, safety and the fortitude of vision necessary to garauntee that no child will catch and die from C-19 at school- because they will be happily learning at home.  Just as a family can fully feel safe in knowing that their child won’t contract TB at school- because districts don’t allow anybody with a positive TB test on campus- we request that those we petition refrain from starting in person learning until they can make the same guarantee with respect to Covid-19.  Thank you for reading. Please sign, if you agree.. and share.  

President Donald Trump said he isn’t concerned “at all” about the coronavirus.  This is a new proof that he is mentally disturbed.  President Donald Trump poses a danger to the United States and to the world.  He must be promptly suspended from office for incompetence.

Since March 16, 2020, Milwaukee Public Schools have been closed. The closing was understandable since the threat imposed by COVID-19 was immeasurable. Nobody knew how deadly the virus was. However, as the months went by, data have shown that children between the age group of 0 - 18 years of age had the least number of fatalities compared to older age groups. In Wisconsin, the age group between 0-18 years of age had suffered no deaths which mean that the threat to COVID-19 is almost nonexistent when it comes to schoolchildren. Online schooling has imposed many challenges to the students of Milwaukee Public Schools. Many have struggle with learning the topics and keeping up with assignments. This is due to teachers not knowing how to use technology. The lack of understanding for technology has made it hard for teachers to help/understand students. Another problem with online schooling is that it doesn't cater to the people who learns hand-on. Many students can only learn when there is teacher giving a lecture on the notes for that specific class. These problems will affect us for years to come. These problems will lead to a lack of understanding in certain school topics and make it hard for us to continue to secondary school/ post-secondary school. These problems will also affect us when we're trying to employ for a job. The employers will not hire us due to our lack of education which is understandable. Lastly, these problems will also affect the economy. The lack of people capable for jobs will cause prices of commodities to go up which will hurt all of us financially. Now I know the worries that many of you may have. What about our parents or the teachers? With enough cleaning and extensive enforcement of mask mandate, I believe that contracting COVID-19 will be kept to the minimal. Again,we have to keep in mind that the virus is only really fatal among people with pre-existing conditions. Teachers who are considered vulnerable to the disease do not have to teach. Parents will not able to contract the disease if the mask mandate is enforced and the school is thoroughly cleaned. Please, Superintendent Dr. Keith P. Posley, reopen up schools. The students are struggling and the parents are too. We do no want to see our community fail. Many have worked hard before this pandemic and to see a avoidable problem like online learning hindering it is just preposterous.