Some Teachers Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves (Escondido, Vista: how much, high school)

[CA4Now]

Quick Guide: What California’s color-coded county tracking system means for schools:

https://edsource.org/2020/quick-guid...schools/639357

[joosoon]

So how about that whole Vista Unified thing?
130 students, 4 teachers to quarantine after positive virus test at Vista Unified school.

Took two days before this happened. So maybe we shouldn't be throwing the doors open for full capacity classrooms just yet?

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by joosoon

So how about that whole Vista Unified thing?
130 students, 4 teachers to quarantine after positive virus test at Vista Unified school.

Took two days before this happened. So maybe we shouldn't be throwing the doors open for full capacity classrooms just yet?

If just 2 days, they likely had it before going to school.

[joosoon]

Probably, but one positive meant 130 other students are now out of in-person for two weeks, and 4 teachers are too as they all have to quarantine. That's the takeaway from that story. I'm in favor of more in-person options, but they need to be done right and the biggest part of that is splitting the student presence on campus at any one time. That means going to a staggered schedule of some sort so that one positive case that slips through doesn't have such a dramatic effect.


Also, this wasn't the first positive in that district.

[Spartanacus]

Originally Posted by joosoon

So how about that whole Vista Unified thing?
130 students, 4 teachers to quarantine after positive virus test at Vista Unified school.

Took two days before this happened. So maybe we shouldn't be throwing the doors open for full capacity classrooms just yet?

I don't think you need to quarantine so many people just due to one student being positive. Only quarantine those who actually have it. We don't quarantine kids due to the flu (which is more deadly for them). It's ridiculous. If you get sick, stay home until you're better. If you have reason to believe the sickness is due to covid (loss of taste or smell), then get tested and quarantine if positive.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by Spartanacus

I don't think you need to quarantine so many people just due to one student being positive. Only quarantine those who actually have it. We don't quarantine kids due to the flu (which is more deadly for them). It's ridiculous. If you get sick, stay home until you're better. If you have reason to believe the sickness is due to covid (loss of taste or smell), then get tested and quarantine if positive.

good you don't think as you said because that is not how covid quarantines work, at all

[roodd279]

We're 8 weeks into the school year, nearly nationwide - and for the first time in 12 weeks, our average daily deaths are going up, not down. States are reporting MORE positive cases, but not in any one locale - instead it's widespread, so that the higher numbers aren't necessarily leading to full hospitals - because it's spread out.

Here's how science works: You make a hypothesis. You do an experiment to maybe exclude it - since proving it's a lot more work. We just finished 8 weeks of experimenting - and we cannot rule out that schools caused cases to rise with some significance, and the rise is confirmed (as opposed to just more testing) by the increase in deaths that comes with more cases.


It's not "case closed" - but the evidence is compelling. Opening schools MIGHT be the reason for the increase in cases. Next step? Close schools, and see if it goes back down.



And THAT is why teachers didn't want to go back, and many still do not. Not because they're afraid for themselves - although some are - but because they're afraid for their parents or grandparents.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Spartanacus

I don't think you need to quarantine so many people just due to one student being positive. Only quarantine those who actually have it.

Well, testing positive usually means you "actually have it," whether or not you are asymptomatic.

Cases will continue when private schools do not follow the state's coronavirus guidelines.

Citing “disturbing” reports of sleepovers and at least one large party, a Bay Area private high school has suspended on-campus learning for two weeks.

Marin Catholic School Principal Chris Valdez said in a statement that several sources had reported the gatherings, which are considered breaches of the school’s guidelines, to the school’s leadership team.

“We cannot tolerate behavior outside of school that places our faculty, staff and students at increased risk of COVID transmission or exposure,” Valdez said, adding that he hoped the closure would send a “clear message to our entire community that our family’s decisions outside of school have a significant impact on all of us.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ies-sleepovers

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by Spartanacus

I don't think you need to quarantine so many people just due to one student being positive.

Districts are following county and state guidelines as part of their reopening plans. There's a flowchart Vista Unified and others are using. Yeah, it may seem extreme to quarantine all those contacts, but that's the only way to be sure the chain of transmission is broken. If the policies are too loose, one case leads to hundreds very easily in a full capacity school. Too many isolated cases and the school shuts down. That's sub-optimal for everyone. That's why a split roster makes more sense right now. You just can't keep distancing to the minimum in that environment. If those classes were limited to those levels, they might've been able to do what you're saying and just isolate the one positive case.


Here's what one of the UCSD experts said in an interview on that exact topic regarding the incident at Mission Vista High:

SL: But if there were people not within 6 feet of him and they were all wearing masks, do you still have to quarantine if you were in the same room with someone who tests …

MS: I think, if, in fact, everyone was 6 feet apart and wearing masks, then that's the whole idea. You would not quarantine. Instead, you would increase your monitoring for any new symptoms in the students who might have been exposed but probably weren't, and you would just be more vigilant and you would keep on continuing. That's what we do with health care workers who've been in the room of somebody with COVID. If they wear a mask, they'd keep working, but, you know, we monitor health care workers every single day for symptoms, and if you get symptoms after being around somebody with COVID, then you're gonna need to stop and say, 'Ok, you know, do I have COVID or do I have something else?'

If you get a chance you should read or listen to the whole thing. He makes a lot of interesting comments.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by roodd279

It's not "case closed" - but the evidence is compelling. Opening schools MIGHT be the reason for the increase in cases. Next step? Close schools, and see if it goes back down.

That won't go over well at all. It's unnecessary to shut everything down just to see what it does to the numbers. The one unique thing we have going with schools as opposed to businesses, is a quasi-contact tracing built into the system via attendance records. That's why there's reporting requirements for positive cases in all the contracts (at least the ones I've seen) too.