Surprising Response To BocaNewsNow.com Question Earlier Friday
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Many parents are still emphatic that they are not sending their kids to school when “Brick and Mortar” reopens on Monday. BocaNewsNow.com asked the question of our readers this morning and fully expected to get slammed by respondents insisting that everything is safe and there’s no reason to stay home.
That didn’t happen.
While we certainly received some responses from those suggesting that COVID is made up and there’s no reason to wear masks, the vast majority of the responses we received draw into question the 50/50 percentages that the Palm Beach County School district has been providing. As things stand Friday afternoon, roughly half of all students are expected to return to school for in-person learning on Monday, with the other half continuing “distance” education.
Here’s a sampling of what we received, starting with an answer to the question: are you sending your child back to school for in-person learning on Monday?
(YES) “Cause I’m not scared like the rest of the people in this world. Cause I don’t live by “what ifs”. You are doing a disservice to your readers with the negative posts. Maybe you should look at both sides of the plate. People want to get back to normal. So all of sudden a parent is gonna say ok I’ll send my child back because someone says it’s ok? Nobody knows anything. It’s a guess and November 3rd the virus will miraculously disappear.”
(YES) “I have been on conference calls with school leadership and have full confidence that they are prepared to open safely. Our students understand the importance of wearing a mask everywhere they go, so it’s not a big deal for them to wear it during school. We need to return to a new normal of how we live and being home all the time is not normal. It’s difficult to stay focused being in front of a screen for 7 hours a day with only 5 min. breaks between classes and 30 min. for lunch. My son’s back and neck are in constant pain!”
(NO) “Not enough precautions taken not enough cleaning done air filtration. Not enough rules on masks. For example masks not fitting properly falling down to lips. I seen this first hand at Jupiter High with the principal and she wasn’t even speaking when I was there.”
(NO) “I am horrified by everything I have seen since the pandemic started as it relates to the PBCSD! My children attend Spanish River and up until now have loved every second of their experience there. They were fortunate in the early stages of distance learning to have incredible teachers who continued teaching and working with students when they were given two weeks to shift to distance learning! Board members and district leaders have had months to prepare and they have spent the last few weeks scrambling to put “something together”. They are asking our children to be guinea pigs and our teachers to be janitors, enforcers and frontline workers! My children’s teachers are in the classroom to educate, mentor, guide and advise not risk their lives unnecessarily!!! There are no new air filtration systems in place, no constant cleaning of desks and chairs, there are overflow rooms, mandatory chrome books, and a lack of truth and transparency!!! Rumor has it there are 28% approximately 800 students going back to school out of close to 3000! What does that say about the trust and confidence parents have in the school district!”
(NO) “I love my family an i WILL NOT send them back to school until there is VACCINE…THIS VIRUS IS NOT UNDER CONTROL!”
(NO) “It’s more safer at home. In the schools there are higher chances of getting in contact. We the adults find it difficult to take every precaution even though we have on our mind that we should. The kids are kids.”
(NO) “We feel the schools aren’t prepared, and don’t want to risk our children getting sick and or becoming a carrier.”
(YES) “My child is in 10th grade, and my whole family already had COVID-19 last month. We have the antibodies, and as per the CDC guidelines, if they end up having to shut it all down again, we won’t be subject to any quarantines for the next 3 months.”
(NO) “We made a decision based on fear of the virus. We don’t trust the air conditioning systems. They have not been optimized for the situation. We want to see if cases start happening. Also, to your point, school will not look like school. To me it doesn’t seem worth the risk for the experience they will have.”
(NO) “I am an elementary teacher on leave for the year. I work in the school building and I can tell you that cleaning has always been an issue. They haven’t hired extra custodians to help with extra protocols. Kids have a hard time keeping their hands out of their mouth and nose. This is common knowledge. Germs easily spread in schools. There is no way to socially distance middle and high school kids. They will break the rules of mask wearing and socially distancing. Social media tells me that they already do. I’m not subjecting my children to this disease unaware of the long term effects. Many teachers did not get the option for remote work so my kids will be one less body they have to worry about.”
We will publish additional responses in separate articles. Let us know what choice you’re making by using the form below:
