In our school we've miraculously found a way to enable 3-foot distancing, for whatever that's worth. We took our ten period day and extended it to 14. Periods are somewhat shortened, so late and early days won't be all that terrible and extreme. There will be issues, but they will be better issues than the ones we'd have if we were at full capacity.
We've also closed up our lunchroom, for the most part. That's not to say that students can't eat. They can go whenever they like, but it's a grab and go thing. I thought that was a good idea too until I heard the fine details. Evidently, because students no longer have lunch periods, they will eat in classes. So much for masking and protection. The idea is that they'll just eat for a few minutes, so we'll spread disease for a short time rather than a long one. I suppose we're supposed to take solace in that.
It was easy to tell that whoever made this particular plan was not doing so from the viewpoint of a teacher, or at the very least hadn't been in the classroom for a while. There's always a difficult and recalcitrant student in a class. This, of course, will be compounded by the anti-mask MAGA lunatics telling their children what Tucker told them last night. As far as this issue, the difficult student number will likely be compounded.
Now if I were a teenager, and I didn't want to wear a mask, I'd bring a lunch tray to the class and eat ever so slowly. That way I could tell the teacher I was entitled to eat in class, and if the teacher were to give me a hard time I'd call out my rights were being violated. It's not my fault I'm a slow eater, and how dare you criticize my eating habits. I always got a full period for lunch before, and you're violating my rights. You don't need to be a genius to know this will happen over and over, and I'm frankly glad I stepped down as chapter leader. I don't want to sit through 200 disciplinary meetings hearing about how people are in trouble because of insane policies.
While we're on the topic of insane policies, I'm hearing that if you are vaccinated, infected, and not showing symptoms that you have no need to quarantine. I don't really know whether that's true or not, as I've yet to see it in print in any policy statement. This notwithstanding, people keep telling me they've heard it. You know, just because you're asymptomatic, it doesn't necessarily mean you aren't contagious. If this is, in fact, a policy, it will result in the spread of COVID, just as our curious lunch policy will.
In LA, they not only have a better testing policy than we do, but they've also made the very sensible move to mandate vaccines for eligible students. I feel like we, in the city that never sleeps, are living in something akin to the dark ages. While that might seem extreme, I'm 100% sure we aren't doing the best we can for our students, let alone ourselves.
This system will not and cannot sustain itself.
I've seen teachers crying in the hall. While I, being the macho man I am, have not actually cried, I fully understand their apprehensions. At this point, it's tough for me to differentiate Mayor de Blasio from some of his MAGA counterparts. He's not as bad as the lunatics running Florida or Texas.
But he's no bargain either.
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