California’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, announced Monday that classes will remain online only through the fall, signaling an increase in coronavirus cases that could affect both teachers and students.
“There is a public health imperative to prevent schools from becoming a Petri dish,” said Austin Beutner, the school superintendent in Los Angeles, whose county is home to more than a third of the state’s coronavirus cases.
The announcement comes amid a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths that has forced California school districts to reevaluate plans for in-person classes. Decisions about reopening California schools are made locally, a feature that has created a mosaic of plans, including online or in-person instruction, or a combination of both.
But even as southern California’s largest school districts alternate reopening plans, education officials in neighboring Orange County, which has become an organized resistance seat to mandatory mask orders, appear ready to go. counter the trend.
This week, Orange County education officials are expected to recommend that schools deliver in-person instruction in the fall. without requiring students to wear face masks or schools to reduce class sizes to allow for physical distance. The recommendations come from a group of panelists, which includes health officials, and are included in a report the school board commissioned on how to reopen schools.
“Requiring children to wear masks during school is not only difficult, but impossible to implement, but not based on science. It can even be harmful, ”the report reads, arguing that wearing masks could lead to behavioral problems.
The report generally argues that the negative effects of keeping children out of schools will outweigh the health risks for children, which have so far largely been spared the most serious health impacts of the virus.
“Children play a very small role in the spread of Covid-19,” the report said. “Teachers and staff are at greater risk of infection from other adults, including parents, than from students in their classrooms.”
While the report shares some similarities with the guidance of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), who said so far little evidence suggests that children are playing an important role in the transmission of Covid-19, the guidance of the AAP underscored the importance of facial covers.
“Evidence continues to grow on the importance of universal face coatings in disrupting the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” it said.
The Orange County report also made the case that masks can be detrimental to child development, arguing: “Mandatory masks can lead to an increase in childhood behavior problems such as learning disabilities, anxiety disorders and depression, to name a few. “
But Mark Reinecke, clinical director and senior clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, said the claim was not supported. “I am not aware of any research or evidence that wearing masks leads to the onset of a depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, or learning disability in children,” said Reinecke.
The CDC guide also advises that children cover their faces when they are in public places and cannot maintain physical distance, and that time with other children should be limited. “Children can transmit this virus to others who are at increased risk for severe Covid-19 disease,” the CDC website read.
Last week, the California Teachers Association (CTA) sent a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, saying that not all schools were equipped with resources to ensure the safe reopening of schools.
“Since schools closed in March, CTA has said that the health and safety of our students and educators must always be our top priority and our guiding principle during this crisis,” CTA leaders said in the letter.
The debate is ongoing nationwide, with US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos saying over the weekend that “the rule should be for kids to go back to school this fall,” echoing the comments from the report of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
However, in its letter to the governor, the California Teachers Association noted the rising infection rates that have made it clear that California has yet to contain its increase.
“Simply put, California cannot reopen schools unless they are safe,” CTA said.
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