This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated January 14, 2022
Los Angeles – the second largest school district in the country – reopened schools Tuesday, January 11, implementing new measures to make schools safer during the omicron COVID surge.
All L.A. students and staff needed a negative test to return, something New York City Schools refused to do. L.A.’s positivity rate for its 600,000 students was over 13 percent, meaning they were able to quarantine tens of thousands of kids at home safely, preventing them from entering schools and potentially infecting others. They will also continue to test all students and staff weekly and begin requiring effective masks — providing them for free, if necessary — also reasonable measures New York City has not employed.
In the first week back from winter break, New York City saw 63,165 new cases in schools, which was 65 percent of all cases the entire school year and more than 2.5 times as many cases as there were from September 13, 2021 to January 2, 2022. About 1 in 20 of all students and staff were recorded as a new COVID case in those five days. Monday, January 10, saw another 14,123 new cases.
Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge reported over 400 cases that week. Like so many other schools, Fort Hamilton dealt with staffing shortages, due to having 35 members of their staff out with COVID.
Many employees and students are being exposed, not being notified in a timely manner that they were a close contact, told to come in based on a negative rapid test, only to learn days later they are positive and have exposed and possibly infected others. Schools Chancellor David Banks had committed to providing principals translations of the notification letters they must provide to families by January 7th, but as of January 10, that had not happened. Staff have often been forced to notify confused parents at drop-off or soon after that their child cannot enter school.
“Because ideally that would be the safest way to do it … But I need my children in school.”
Mayor Adams in Jan 9, 2022 CNN interview, when asked if testing for all teachers, students, faculty would be the safest way to keep schools open and why is he not doing that.
Attendance the first week back never exceeded 72 percent, falling to 44 percent Friday, January 7 when snowfall was a factor in addition to COVID. Attendance was considerably lower in schools with higher percentages of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, as well as in those serving more black and brown kids. Hospitals serving these communities have also seen fewer hospital beds available, as COVID continues to have a greater frequency of severe outcomes in those areas.
The doubling of testing to 20 percent, touted by Mayor Adams, continues to be deceptive. The figure represents 20 percent of only unvaccinated students whose families have provided signed consent forms. At my kids’ school, testing only increased by 33 percent and tested just 8.9 percent of students last week. Positive cases in the first week back were 48 times higher than the weekly average before the winter break and there were 10 times as many cases since December 28, 2021 than in the three-plus months before.
Adams said in a CNN interview January 9 that testing all students, as L.A does, is “ideally… the safest way to do it… But I need my children in school.” About 100,000 New York City school students have contracted COVID. Children who recover from COVID seem to be at much higher risk of developing type 1 or type 2 diabetes, as well as other long-term, chronic illnesses. It is understandable that we cannot lock everything down again and that we need to find a way to live with COVID, but rather than move ahead in ways that Adams admits are not the safest, we can employ reasonable measure to make schools safer.
Proper testing and tracing must occur to ensure positive cases are addressed promptly and school administrators are advised of necessary actions. Transparent reporting of data needs to be available, down to the school level. All Students and staff should be tested weekly, with only an opt-out option. Students in 3K, pre-k and Kindergarten should be tested, as well. Effective masks should be required and provided for free. Ventilation should be upgraded with effective air filters.
Doing nothing to improve safety, when COVID is burning through schools like a wildfire, is madness. We need those in leadership positions to take action and stop failing our kids.
