No to School Closures!

COVID-19 cases are on the rise and with the current political climate is hard to determine our country’s future and mitigating actions needed to take care of our population and avoid the economic hardship of small and large businesses alike.

Now, with cases topping over 160K infections per day and surpassing the 1.000.000 Cases in just a week; many sectors are asking for wide school closures thinking that this would help to stop the spread. But things have changed since the pandemic started: we have learned to mitigate the impact and treatments are greatly reducing the number of victims taken by the virus; also, we did learn a little more about how to stop the spread on a local level, even if our behavior and uncertain political climate have pushed us to let our guard down with basic practices like mask-wearing and social distancing. So, taking all of this into consideration, why would our kids suffer from our poor decisions? Out of all types of in-person activities, attending school is one of the safest one around not only in virus transmission rate but also on physical and mental well-being for kids and families. Let me explain why…

Transmission is rarely happening at schools

Various schools around the country have implemented great sanitary measures to combat the widespread of the virus on school grounds. Activities like hand washing/sanitizing, mandatory mask-wearing, school capacity limitations with in-person and online combined activities, daily temperature checks, social distancing in the classroom and even limiting access to the school’s cafeteria and designing movement patterns throughout school grounds; all have shown that our schools, in general, have done an amazing job of taking care of our kids and teachers.

So why are we shutting down schools? Because our kids can spread the disease? Guess what, kids are not getting contagious on school grounds, but rather on out-of-school and weekend activities which are managed by, guess who, correct! Us: the parents! It’s our own behavior that is jeopardizing all the efforts that have been put in place with sleepovers, birthday parties, and not following social distancing rules. Failing to behave responsively as families and communities, is what has allowed this second wave of the virus to spread the way that it has.

To open or to close, that’s the question…

School closures will do little or nothing to mitigate the widespread of the virus. But school closures deeply continue to affect our children’s lives and impact greatly our family’s well-being and even our economy. Studies have shown that when schools are closed, kids are being affected in different levels such as social interaction with their peers, multi-screen exposure (yes, this is real! Because kids lack focus from dividing their attention to simultaneous virtual settings during classes), and overall school performance. Our kids are not used to prolonged periods of virtual learning, so all the benefits that come with the availably of learning from home are outweighed by the negative effects that staying at home brings to them, our families, and even the community with arisen economic challenges.

School closings affect local economies and businesses

Ok, but why are school closures affecting our economy? As you probably already know, the fact of having our schools closed imposes a great deal of stress to parents that must divide their attention between kids, home, and work. This added stress also affects how we interact with the outside world, since we’re staying so much more time at home, many local and small businesses have to deal with lower sales volumes, supply chain disruptions, and other factors that negatively impact a way to keeping afloat with an already opened wound brought by the first shut down. The New York Times and many other media outlets are documenting several cases on how businesses continue to close every day.

Do you think that closing schools will mitigate the rising numbers of COVID-19? Share with me your thoughts and let’s engage in the conversation!☺