What would you have done?

[Lumpy1106]

This doesn't make sense - these students went through the same school closure your children went through. Maybe not as long, but they still went through the closure.

Do you realize how insensitive this is? I can only assume you did not have HS age kids that were locked in their bedrooms for 2 years. DD would not leave her bed she was so depressed. DS essentially did not have a SR year. My God - it seems so impossible that happened, but it did. By the responses here, I have no faith that it will not happen again. I'll put it in bold caps so there is no confusion, DO NOT EVER CLOSE THE SCHOOLS ON MY BEHALF. EVER.

 

[monsterkitty]

Do you realize how insensitive this is? I can only assume you did not have HS age kids that were locked in their bedrooms for 2 years. DD would not leave her bed she was so depressed. DS essentially did not have a SR year. My God - it seems so impossible that happened, but it did. By the responses here, I have no faith that it will not happen again. I'll put it in bold caps so there is no confusion, DO NOT EVER CLOSE THE SCHOOLS ON MY BEHALF. EVER.

I apologize for sounding insensitive.

The 2019-2020 was the year I was retiring, after teaching at the same school for 31 years. I had students who were children of former students. I taught entire families, including 19 children from the same parents. I hadn't told my students that I was retiring because I didn't want their last band or orchestra concerts to be about me instead of them. At the last concert every year I called the 8th graders up and told them one by one what I enjoyed about having them in class and how important they were to me and other in their lives. It was heartbreaking not to conduct my last concerts and give my students little snack bags with a little note to each one of them.

Instead of conducting the concert, I sat behind my computer screen on those concert nights just so the students could talk over Zoom to each other.

I understand how your children felt because even I, and countless other teachers and students were going through the same emotions.

My district did go back to in-person in August of 2020 for those parents and students who wanted to return to the building. The person who replaced me quit the day before school started so they asked me to fill in until they could hire a new instrumental music teacher. I ended up being there the entire year, so I did have closure of being able to teach but not perform because large group gatherings were still not allowed.

While we can't go back and change history of the shutdown, we can learn from it. We need to work together so that if another pandemic presents itself, we have already built a plan so that we can avoid repeating the history. We don't need children to stay in bed all day or suffer from knowing that they brought a deadly virus home to other family members and that virus led to the death of one of those family members. Both scenarios are both detrimental to children and should never be repeated again.

 

[disneychrista]

deleted

 

[Procrastinate]

A total of zero kids age 0-18 died of COVID in Los Angeles County. ZERO.

I can’t read the article due to the paywall, but it looks like there have been several child deaths in LA County:
https://www.dailynews.com/2023/05/04/la-county-logs-25th-child-death-related-to-covid-19/

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I can’t read the article due to the paywall, but it looks like there have been several child deaths in LA County:
https://www.dailynews.com/2023/05/04/la-county-logs-25th-child-death-related-to-covid-19/

LA County logs 25th child death related to COVID-19​

City News ServiceMay 5, 2023 at 10:38 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County has reported its 25th COVID-19-related pediatric death, and health officials again warned about the local presence of a newly emerging strain of the virus.

No details were released about the pediatric death, which was one of 51 virus-related fatalities reported over the past week. That figure was down slightly from 54 deaths recorded the previous week.

As of Tuesday, the county had recorded a total of 36,247 virus-related fatalities from throughout the pandemic.

 

[kymom99]

I was a teacher and I personally had a college student during Covid. My son was asked to work at Walgreens since many older employees took a leave at the height of the pandemic. I was thankful for that job at Walgreens because he was able to get out of the house and interact with others his age. I believe it saved his sanity. He did return to campus in the fall of 2020 but many classes met in smaller groups. His graduation was limited to number of attendees. Thankfully he wasn’t in high school. That would have been harder.

There was an awkward time after schools began to reopen but my students eventually put it behind them. We weren’t closed for 2 years though. My grandson was in kindergarten so he doesn’t remember much about it, but I do feel that it impaired his social growth. I don’t blame anyone for that. He went to private schools so their time closed was limited. However, his mom as a single mom had Covid so he had to isolate with her and try to do his own makeup work. That was brutal.

In my neighborhood, families were seen walking together and playing yard games outside. Even though it was a hard time, I felt like it strengthened family bonds. So that’s a positive outcome.

 

[sam_gordon]

I personally would never wish for anybody's kids to be put through what my kids went through on the off chance that it might keep me from getting sick. Nope - don't ever do that on my behalf.

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? I mean to know how the decisions you make today, and the words you say today will affect history months and years down the road?

Closing schools and businesses may not have been the best decision, but it was based on information known AT THAT TIME.

And even if we KNEW kids wouldn't be affected by Covid, what about the teachers, the cafeteria workers, administrators, bus drivers, janitors, and other adults that are necessary to conduct school? They're on their own?

Its easy for people to say "you made the wrong decision" months and years after the decision was made, thanks to hindsight, which is always 20/20.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Well, sorry Dan, that's just the way it is. For me personally, this has NOTHING to do with a "corrosion of ideals" or a "difference of opinion". I saw what the school closures and forced isolation did to my kids. They have a long way to go before they recover mentally and nobody is even acknowledging it. Not over it - not by a long shot. I don't know if you have kids or what their situation was, but I would certainly not expect you to feel any differently.

I strongly disagree with you and I have kids who experienced school closures.

My one did not get a high school graduation.

 

[DisneyHardin]

And even if we KNEW kids wouldn't be affected by Covid, what about the teachers, the cafeteria workers, administrators, bus drivers, janitors, and other adults that are necessary to conduct school? They're on their own?

YES!!! As a teacher, I appreciated the school closures. I feel certain if I had contracted that early strain of Covid, I would have ended up in the hospital, probably on a vent due to problems I have with my lungs.

 

[mjkacmom]

I strongly disagree with you and I have kids who experienced school closures.

My one did not get a high school graduation.

I had one who lost his college graduation, another who had to come home from college and go online for 1 1/2 years, 2 who were HS juniors who lost more than I can remember, I’m okay with it even though my youngest really never went back to in person. One of my twins had some mental health issues and had to withdraw from college freshman year in 2021 (only 1 in person class). He’s now commuting. They survived.

 

[GreatLakes]

COVID was a learning experience for everyone and in hindsight some things could have been done differently. Both parents working from home with a kid was rough but we made it through.

I have no issue with over-closing to be safe with the information we had at the time. Contrary to belief science is about learning, not knowing, and will be wrong more than it is right by design.

 

[leahgoogle]

Do you realize how insensitive this is? I can only assume you did not have HS age kids that were locked in their bedrooms for 2 years. DD would not leave her bed she was so depressed. DS essentially did not have a SR year. My God - it seems so impossible that happened, but it did. By the responses here, I have no faith that it will not happen again. I'll put it in bold caps so there is no confusion, DO NOT EVER CLOSE THE SCHOOLS ON MY BEHALF. EVER.

I agree with this! I am thankful we lived in a district that only shut down in 2020 for the last 8 weeks of the school year. The next fall, we were fully open in-person. Sports went on (with contact tracing) and my son went to state for basketball. It made a world of difference in the metal well-being of our kids. My 10 year-old daughter played softball in the summer of 2020. My community and school board looked at the data and saw that outside transmission was low and that kids were better off in school because their risk was low. This was unheard of in much of the country and even in different parts of the state.

 

[leahgoogle]

The uptake on this new booster is 2% at the moment. I know more people that have had side-effects from the shot (some severe) than covid. I know quite a few that didn't get any boosters after the initial series. The side-effects were worse for them than covid symptoms.

 

[tink2424]

I always love the “”I know people…” argument. Oh really, you do?? And that trumps (see what I did there) actual science.

Correlation does not equal causation no matter how much you try.



You fought the good fight. The science deniers will continue listening to Dr Rogan. It’s mind boggling.

I'm not sure what point you are really trying to make with your comments. No science denying going on on my side.

I asked my DH this morning, how many people
we personally know who died from Covid? He quickly named 8 people. How many do we know still battling long Covid health issues? 4
How many do we know with serious vax side effects? 0

Got our 2023 boosters on Monday.

I'm just going to remind you of what you said... correlation doesn't equal causation no matter how hard you try.

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? I mean to know how the decisions you make today, and the words you say today will affect history months and years down the road?

Closing schools and businesses may not have been the best decision, but it was based on information known AT THAT TIME.

And even if we KNEW kids wouldn't be affected by Covid, what about the teachers, the cafeteria workers, administrators, bus drivers, janitors, and other adults that are necessary to conduct school? They're on their own?

Its easy for people to say "you made the wrong decision" months and years after the decision was made, thanks to hindsight, which is always 20/20.

But we did know. Other countries didn't shut down schools and were able to operate just fine. So I'm not sure I buy this argument.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? I mean to know how the decisions you make today, and the words you say today will affect history months and years down the road?

Closing schools and businesses may not have been the best decision, but it was based on information known AT THAT TIME.

And even if we KNEW kids wouldn't be affected by Covid, what about the teachers, the cafeteria workers, administrators, bus drivers, janitors, and other adults that are necessary to conduct school? They're on their own?

Its easy for people to say "you made the wrong decision" months and years after the decision was made, thanks to hindsight, which is always 20/20.

No, I am proud to say I was one of the ones saying it at the time - not months later. Not that anyone was listening. FWIW - I moved my youngest to a school across the county line that NEVER closed. No problems whatsoever. I did not have that option with my HS kids. The data was there if you were willing to see it.

 

[sam_gordon]

No, I am proud to say I was one of the ones saying it at the time - not months later. Not that anyone was listening. FWIW - I moved my youngest to a school across the county line that NEVER closed. No problems whatsoever. I did not have that option with my HS kids. The data was there if you were willing to see it.

Good for you. You KNEW what was going to happen months/years down the road. I wasn't saying that those who made the decision to keep schools closed made the right decision. I was simply saying they made the decision based on the information they had at the time. Again, there was more in play than the impact on the kids. What about all the adults that are required to keep the school open? TPTB have to weigh THEIR issues in also, right?

So, you feel TPTB made the wrong decision. OK. I've seen plenty of TPTB make wrong decisions over my life time, and will probably see a lot more. Do you think they made the decision to keep schools closed for some nefarious purpose? If so, what was their purpose? Or simply that they made the wrong decision? IMO, it's the latter. In which case, see my previous post where I said it must be nice to know how the decisions you make now will affect lives months/years in the future.

 

[Lumpy1106]

FINALLY - a definitive, exhaustive article on the subject;
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/art...l-joe-nocera-bethany-mclean-book-excerpt.html

 

[john7994]

FINALLY - a definitive, exhaustive article on the subject;
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/art...l-joe-nocera-bethany-mclean-book-excerpt.html

Funny - the article ends with the statement:

“While this is not a definitive accounting of how the damage from lockdowns outweighed the benefits, it is at least an attempt to nudge that conversation forward as the U.S. hopefully begins to recenter public-health best practices on something closer to the vision put forward by Henderson.”

 

[tink2424]

FINALLY - a definitive, exhaustive article on the subject;
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/art...l-joe-nocera-bethany-mclean-book-excerpt.html

Really good article. The sad thing is that the people who still believe that the lockdown was necessary probably won't read it and even if they do they will just not believe in the conclusions. We have a lot of brainwashed people here in the US since the media no longer does their job.

But definitely thanks for sharing! Hopefully more and more evidence will be shared with the general public which will possibly start to shift the public sentiment. It is very clear to most parents that closing schools have damaged children and in some cases the kids won't be able to overcome their issues.

 

[dcassetta]

Really good article. The sad thing is that the people who still believe that the lockdown was necessary probably won't read it and even if they do they will just not believe in the conclusions. We have a lot of brainwashed people here in the US since the media no longer does their job.

But definitely thanks for sharing! Hopefully more and more evidence will be shared with the general public which will possibly start to shift the public sentiment. It is very clear to most parents that closing schools have damaged children and in some cases the kids won't be able to overcome their issues.

Is this not the media? Or are only some members of the media not doing their jobs?

Hopefully, we can all learn from the early pandemic and have a more effective response when the next novel illness arrives. After all, the next one may affect children more. I am not being pessimistic but realistic.