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The private school attended by Donald Trump’s son Barron can only partially reopen, or not reopen at all, even when the president threatened to withhold coronavirus relief funds from public campuses that remain closed.
The Episcopal School of San Andrés published an update saying that they were considering continuing to learn at a distance or implementing a hybrid model when the school year resumes in September.
Trump said this week that he would feel “comfortable” sending his 14-year-old son, Barron, and school-age grandchildren to school this fall, saying the children “have a very strong immune system.”
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In announcing $ 105 billion for schools under the next coronavirus relief package this week, Trump said that if schools are not reopened, the funds should go toward sending children to schools of their choice.
“Online learning has never been an effective replacement for in-person learning and support. Being in school, being on campus is very important,” Trump said.
St Andrews school principal Robert Kosasky said non-binding surveys would be sent to parents, presumably including the president, about his intentions to send students to class if they partially reopened.
“We hope that by September most of our students will be able to return to learning and relationships on campus,” Kosasky said in a statement.
“As we prepare to make a decision the week of August 10 about the best way to start the school year, we will continue to follow the guidance of appropriate health officials and refine our hybrid and distance learning plans.”
According to new CDC guidelines released this week, schools may adopt a hybrid approach in which some students learn in person while others learn online.
If adopted, the hybrid model at St Andrew’s would see students in years seven through 12 rotate between online and in-person classes weekly, while students in their sixth year and under would be on site every day.
At a White House press conference on Friday, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that schools were an essential business and that teachers are essential personnel such as doctors, meat packers and journalists.
“According to current data, the infection rate among younger schoolchildren, and from student to teacher, has been low, especially if proper precautions are followed,” said McEnany.
That said, even if there is transmission, and then studies come out, let’s say, we believe that students should go back to school because the effect on a child, we know scientifically, that they are not affected the same way as an adult.
Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus coordinator, said Friday that whether children under the age of 10 transmitted the virus at the same rate as children over the age of 10 was an “open question” that should be studied.
“We know that children under the age of 18 are less ill, but there are some who suffer terrible consequences if they have underlying conditions,” Birx said in an interview on Today.
“We certainly know from other studies that children under the age of 10 become infected, it is unclear how fast they transmit the virus.”
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