A school story (in a pandemic)
So the first two weeks of school have been very interesting, from a pandemic standpoint. From an educational standpoint, they've been mostly great. Andrew had some initial trouble because his best (and only) friend from last year was put in a different class - but he's made two great friends amongst the new students, and he likes his teachers. Plus he's going without a shadow for the first time, and that's been going really well, which is a relief. Charlie's been loving kindergaten, he comes home and tells me everything about his day, and he's happy to return the next day.
Charlie: I have a best friend and I LOVE HIM and he's coming to play at my house.
Me: Great! Do you know his name?
Charlie: No.
Yeah, par for the course. I sent a note to his teacher, and she narrowed it down to three possibilities; luckily, Charlie identified one of the three as his best friend whom he loves. Unfortunately, the kid shares the name of a character from one of my fandom, so until I meet him, I'm going to be picturing a tiny, red-haired Benedict Cumberbatch zooming around the playground making airplane noises, which I'm 60% sure is not accurate.
(I mean, it wouldn't detract from Charlie loving him, that's all I'm saying.)
But back to the pandemic. The school started off really well: every staff and student attending the school had to undergo Covid testing prior to the first day. Luckily, the test being given is not the through-the-nose-and-touch-your-brain version. This version is basically a Q-tip that goes about a centimeter up each nostril, rolled around, and then done. Results within a few hours and with about 95% accuracy, or so we're told.
The first round of testing, prior school opening, had no positive results. Which is actually seriously incredible, I'm still in awe of that. I really thought there'd be one or two asymptomatic positives.
Anyway, school in session: everyone must wear face masks at all times, from the minute they get on the bus to go to school, to the minute when they get off at home in the afternoon. They're allowed to remove the masks for outdoor recess, PE, or eating/drinking. (Additionally, if kids have trouble during the day with the mask, they can take short, approved breaks.)
All children and staff are further having weekly Covid testing (on a rotating basis, so there's always a grade level or three being tested that day). There's also daily temperature checks, first at home (where we parents then have to enter the temp into an online database), and also upon arrival at school via those walk-through-temp-check thingies. Very space-age.
The first week was a bit chaotic: the app that we're all using to enter temp checks didn't work properly for a lot of parents, and then there were those of us who entered information incorrectly. (Such as me, who stupidly forgot that Europe does temps in Celsius, and ended up entering my kids' temps in Fahrenheit. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, a temp of 98 degrees Celsius makes you unfit for school. WHO KNEW.)
And then... it happened. On Monday morning, a seventh-grader who had been sick reported as Covid-positive via independent testing. Luckily, the student and the three siblings didn't go to school on Monday, so the school wasn't too worried about infection - but they were still playing it safe and planning to do extra cleaning of the affected grades, extra testing of the same grades, and extra caution. No worries. In the meantime, the family's on a mandatory two-week quarantine while they get the Covid out of their systems.
Case closed, right? Wrong. Another seventh-grader, who had been out of school since the preceding Friday, came to school on Tuesday. And tested positive for Covid. At which point the school did the sensible thing and went OH HOLY SHIT and decided to shut down the entire middle school for the rest of the week. On top of that, the 3rd-grade sibling tested positive too - and that kid, being asymptomatic, had been going to school the whole time. So in addition to the middle school being shut down (and siphoned straight into virtual school), the school shut down the 3rd grade, too.
(The third-graders were all tested the following day and no further positives found.)
(Everyone with me so far? Good.)
In the meantime... there's a bunch of families who are self-quarantining because they attended a party at someone's house over the weekend. And one of the adults at the party turned out to be Covid-positive. Which means all those families have been exposed and they're staying home just in case. (So far, none of them are positive, so that's good, but still.)
Anyway, because of all these siblings in various grades, almost half the school underwent emergency testing on Thursday and Friday. End result... drum roll please...
No further infections. Yeah, I know, kinda crazy, I'm still surprised. (One of the grades tested was Andrew's, so he had two Covid tests this last week, poor kid.)
In the meantime, the 3rd graders have returned to school, and the middle school is due to undergo testing on Monday, with the plan to return on Tuesday. (I would imagine any covid-positives at that point just stay home in quarantine, while the rest return.)
The takeaway?
The only thing that stopped this particular outbreak in its tracks is that the school was able to react quickly and decisively because of continual testing. First with Family Zero, who immediately quarantined themselves (thank you, family) - and then by deciding to shut down the affected areas of the school when the second set of positives popped up. Without those actions, I'm pretty sure the current Covid count would be A LOT larger than three. Especially as at least one of those cases was asymptomatic.
In the meantime, the school's changed some of their guidelines. Now if one kid in a family has any symptoms, every kid in the family has to stay home - and everyone must have a Covid test before returning to school. It makes sense, I totally get it - but wow, is it making me paranoid about what the kids are doing. Suddenly either of them getting sick means I'm going to be virtual schooling two children at once, and that is not something I want to do for a day, let alone on a prolonged basis.
But given the alternatives... this is still way better. This works.
I'm still pretty sure we'll have some kind of virtual school this year - for one reason or another - but I'm also feeling more confident that it will be temporary. I can deal with that.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
Charlie: I have a best friend and I LOVE HIM and he's coming to play at my house.
Me: Great! Do you know his name?
Charlie: No.
Yeah, par for the course. I sent a note to his teacher, and she narrowed it down to three possibilities; luckily, Charlie identified one of the three as his best friend whom he loves. Unfortunately, the kid shares the name of a character from one of my fandom, so until I meet him, I'm going to be picturing a tiny, red-haired Benedict Cumberbatch zooming around the playground making airplane noises, which I'm 60% sure is not accurate.
(I mean, it wouldn't detract from Charlie loving him, that's all I'm saying.)
But back to the pandemic. The school started off really well: every staff and student attending the school had to undergo Covid testing prior to the first day. Luckily, the test being given is not the through-the-nose-and-touch-your-brain version. This version is basically a Q-tip that goes about a centimeter up each nostril, rolled around, and then done. Results within a few hours and with about 95% accuracy, or so we're told.
The first round of testing, prior school opening, had no positive results. Which is actually seriously incredible, I'm still in awe of that. I really thought there'd be one or two asymptomatic positives.
Anyway, school in session: everyone must wear face masks at all times, from the minute they get on the bus to go to school, to the minute when they get off at home in the afternoon. They're allowed to remove the masks for outdoor recess, PE, or eating/drinking. (Additionally, if kids have trouble during the day with the mask, they can take short, approved breaks.)
All children and staff are further having weekly Covid testing (on a rotating basis, so there's always a grade level or three being tested that day). There's also daily temperature checks, first at home (where we parents then have to enter the temp into an online database), and also upon arrival at school via those walk-through-temp-check thingies. Very space-age.
The first week was a bit chaotic: the app that we're all using to enter temp checks didn't work properly for a lot of parents, and then there were those of us who entered information incorrectly. (Such as me, who stupidly forgot that Europe does temps in Celsius, and ended up entering my kids' temps in Fahrenheit. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, a temp of 98 degrees Celsius makes you unfit for school. WHO KNEW.)
And then... it happened. On Monday morning, a seventh-grader who had been sick reported as Covid-positive via independent testing. Luckily, the student and the three siblings didn't go to school on Monday, so the school wasn't too worried about infection - but they were still playing it safe and planning to do extra cleaning of the affected grades, extra testing of the same grades, and extra caution. No worries. In the meantime, the family's on a mandatory two-week quarantine while they get the Covid out of their systems.
Case closed, right? Wrong. Another seventh-grader, who had been out of school since the preceding Friday, came to school on Tuesday. And tested positive for Covid. At which point the school did the sensible thing and went OH HOLY SHIT and decided to shut down the entire middle school for the rest of the week. On top of that, the 3rd-grade sibling tested positive too - and that kid, being asymptomatic, had been going to school the whole time. So in addition to the middle school being shut down (and siphoned straight into virtual school), the school shut down the 3rd grade, too.
(The third-graders were all tested the following day and no further positives found.)
(Everyone with me so far? Good.)
In the meantime... there's a bunch of families who are self-quarantining because they attended a party at someone's house over the weekend. And one of the adults at the party turned out to be Covid-positive. Which means all those families have been exposed and they're staying home just in case. (So far, none of them are positive, so that's good, but still.)
Anyway, because of all these siblings in various grades, almost half the school underwent emergency testing on Thursday and Friday. End result... drum roll please...
No further infections. Yeah, I know, kinda crazy, I'm still surprised. (One of the grades tested was Andrew's, so he had two Covid tests this last week, poor kid.)
In the meantime, the 3rd graders have returned to school, and the middle school is due to undergo testing on Monday, with the plan to return on Tuesday. (I would imagine any covid-positives at that point just stay home in quarantine, while the rest return.)
The takeaway?
The only thing that stopped this particular outbreak in its tracks is that the school was able to react quickly and decisively because of continual testing. First with Family Zero, who immediately quarantined themselves (thank you, family) - and then by deciding to shut down the affected areas of the school when the second set of positives popped up. Without those actions, I'm pretty sure the current Covid count would be A LOT larger than three. Especially as at least one of those cases was asymptomatic.
In the meantime, the school's changed some of their guidelines. Now if one kid in a family has any symptoms, every kid in the family has to stay home - and everyone must have a Covid test before returning to school. It makes sense, I totally get it - but wow, is it making me paranoid about what the kids are doing. Suddenly either of them getting sick means I'm going to be virtual schooling two children at once, and that is not something I want to do for a day, let alone on a prolonged basis.
But given the alternatives... this is still way better. This works.
I'm still pretty sure we'll have some kind of virtual school this year - for one reason or another - but I'm also feeling more confident that it will be temporary. I can deal with that.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.