WASHINGTON – The school attended by President Trump’s son will not reopen in September due to the coronavirus pandemic despite the president’s insistence that students across the country return to classrooms in the fall.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, a private school in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, said in a letter to parents that it was still deciding whether to adopt a hybrid model for the fall that would allow for limited in-person education or to resume all classes in line. as it was done in the spring. The school will decide early next month which option to pursue.
“We are hopeful that public health conditions will support our implementation of the hybrid model in the fall,” said the letter signed by Robert Kosasky, the school principal, and David Brown, the assistant principal. “As we prepare to make a decision the week of August 10 about how to best start the school year,” they added, “we will continue to follow the guidance of appropriate health officials and refine our hybrid and distance learning plans.”
If the school opts for the hybrid model, students in grades 7-12 would rotate between on-campus and distance learning, with half of the students learning remotely each week. Barron Trump, 14, the youngest of the President’s five children, has spent the past three years at St. Andrew’s.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that schools be fully opened and has threatened to withhold federal money from districts that do not, but states, localities, and private schools increasingly challenge him.
Teacher union leaders said the San Andres situation should show Mr. Trump how complicated the reopening is for schools trying to balance the educational needs of their children and the health concerns of staff, students and the community.
“The president now has to face what every other parent in the United States and every other teacher in the United States is dealing with right now, which is: In the midst of a pandemic, how do you keep your children’s schools safe and your faculty? ” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in an interview. “It’s about security, not bravado. It is a plan and resources, not threats. ”
Weingarten said Trump’s confrontational approach had made it difficult to find practical solutions to a problem that everyone wants to solve. “Hopefully, Donald Trump will have a pinch of empathy and consideration for what Americans are going through now that he is experiencing it himself,” he said.
The Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital, where Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, send their children, has not decided whether or not to reopen in the fall.
In a coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, Trump made no objection to Barron or his school-age grandchildren returning to class. “I am comfortable with that,” he said.
The coronavirus outbreak>
Frequent questions
Updated July 23, 2020
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What will school be like in September?
- Many schools are unlikely to return to normal hours this fall, requiring the routine of online learning, impromptu child care, and delayed work days to continue. California’s two largest public school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, said July 13 that instruction will be remote only in the fall, citing concerns that rising coronavirus infections in their areas pose too serious a risk to students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll about 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution will not be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the country’s largest New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending a few days in classrooms and other days online. There is no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what’s going on in your community.
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Is the coronavirus in the air?
- Coronavirus can remain in the air for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, growing scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded interior spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain overcast events reported in meat packing plants, churches, and restaurants. It is unclear how often the virus is transmitted through these small droplets or sprays, compared to the larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or is transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, Linsey said. Marr, Virginia Tech aerosol expert. Aerosols are released even when a symptom-free person exhales, speaks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have summarized the evidence in an open letter to the World Organization. Of the health.
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What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
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What is the best material for a mask?
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Does Covid-19 transmit asymptomatic?
- So far, the evidence seems to show that it does. A widely cited article published in April suggests that people are most infectious approximately two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms, and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were the result of transmission from people who still had no symptoms. Recently, a senior expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people without symptoms was “very rare,” but later withdrew that claim.
The White House had no comment Thursday on St. Andrew’s decision, but in a briefing later that day, Trump seemed more flexible in demanding reopens, acknowledging the need for more security measures than he has in last.
In areas with emerging infections, he said, reading a script, “districts may need to delay reopening for a few weeks.”
“That is possible,” he said. “That will depend on the governors. Decisions must be made based on data and facts on the ground. “
But he emphasized the need to reopen quickly. “We cannot indefinitely prevent 50 million American children from going to school, impairing their mental, physical and emotional development,” she said. “Reopening our schools is also critical to ensuring parents can go to work and support their families.”
