Here’s the problem with schools…

The Times has a great story this morning about Corner Canyon high school in Utah, which recently closed temporarily after 77 of about 2300 students and teachers tested positive for the coronavirus. You should read the story, but here are some of the highlights for me:

The state had mandated that students and staff members wear masks in school, allowing unmasked sports practice and competition. But with nearly 80 percent of Canyons students opting for in-person school, the district seems to have made few adjustments to accommodate social distancing in classrooms. The district also did not make coronavirus testing part of its reopening plan, leaving those decisions to families.

….

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have faced pressure from the White House to avoid discouraging school districts from reopening, have declined to provide specific guidance on what districts should do when infections rise in a school or the surrounding community.

….

“We’ve forced every school district to figure out how to respond to a pandemic on its own, and it’s insane,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

“There should be clear guidance — whether it’s Department of Education, or C.D.C., or ideally a combination — so that you don’t have every school district in America with different thresholds, different approaches, different measures.”

….

The board ultimately adopted its own standard, which stipulated that it would shift high schools to remote learning when positive cases represented 2 percent of the students attending in-person classes — mostly, one board member suggested, because at that point the number of students quarantined from possible exposure would become unmanageable.

When the board decided to close Corner Canyon, on Sept. 18, the school’s 77 reported cases represented more than 3 percent of the roughly 2,250 students attending in person. (By contrast, New York City, which recently reopened schools on a hybrid model, has said that in certain situations it will close schools for only two positive cases in separate classrooms.) Note: In other words, if Corner Canyon had followed NYC’s guidelines, they would have shut the school when just .01 percent of the students were infected, vs. the 3% standard that Corner Canyon set for themselves. Of course, the schools in the area would never have opened in the first place if they were following NYC’s guidance for when schools could open, given the local test positive rate. Currently, Utah’s test positive rate is 16.2% and New York state’s is 1.1%. I believe schools in NY state can’t open unless the rate is below 3%, and perhaps even 2%.

….

Many parents in the district do not support any virus restrictions. After Corner Canyon canceled most homecoming events, some parents organized their own homecoming party. The mayor of Draper, where the school is, said that he wished his constituents would follow public health guidance on matters like masking and social distancing, but that he could not force them to.

“I don’t think people are going to respond until they see people go into the hospital,” Mayor Troy K. Walker said.

Mr. Walker said he had heard from some Corner Canyon parents that there was an agreement among mothers at the school — he called it a “mom code” — not to get their children tested for the virus even if they became ill, to avoid adding to the school’s case count and contributing to it being shut down. (He said he told these parents he did not agree with this approach.)

You can see in the last three paragraphs what the problem is: Even if the school district had been inclined to follow sensible medical guidance, they were facing determined opposition from a lot of parents. What could change that? A national government that follows what the science says about public health, and requires their citizens follow that. Fortunately, there is one national government in North America that meets that description. Unfortunately, it’s not the US government, at least not until January 20, 2021.

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com

 

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