On January 20th, 2020, the first case of Coronavirus was identified in America. Since then, there have been about 14.2 million reported cases and 276,000 known deaths. In North Carolina alone there are about 378,000 reported cases and about 5,600 known deaths. In Wake County, there are about 31,000 reported cases and about 300 known deaths. It has almost been one year since the first Coronavirus case was reported and as can be seen this pandemic is not ending anytime soon. The sad reality is that the pandemic is getting worse and more people have been negatively impacted by this virus. About 7.7 million people lost their jobs due to this pandemic. There are currently 68 confirmed Coronavirus cases related to Wake County Schools. The question still remains, should students be returning to school? Wake County Public Schools should continue online schooling because research done by the CDC shows that teens are almost twice as likely to get infected with the virus than anyone else. Additionally, if students returned to school it is very possible for there to be an outbreak in schools. Lastly, students returning to school would cause test materials to become scant. Since the virus is more likely to infect teens, it will cause them to be tested. In the current case with all students being online, they will not have to get tested for COVID related issues because of school.
If schools opened and all students returned, the current situation would become dreadful. In the current situation it seems like it cannot get any worse. Research shows that Coronavirus is more likely to impact teens than any other age group. A report done by the CDC showed that between March and September, a total of 277,285 cases of COVID-19 in school-aged children were reported in the United States, including 101,503 (37%) in children aged 5–11 years and 175,782 (63%) in adolescents aged 12–17 years. Not only does this data show that ages 12-17 have a large number of cases, but also students between the ages of 5-11. An additional study conducted by the CDC showed that almost 16% of children that have the virus are asymptomatic. This is also a large hazard because if a student has the virus but does not realize since he/she is asymptomatic, they may unknowingly be transferring the virus to other students or teachers. On the other hand, many people do not believe that schools are a big driver. This is starting to become more common because data shows that schools are not hot spots for the virus. Although they are not hot spots, people in school’s are vulnerable to infection. Many researches say that an outbreak in a school is unavoidable. Since people are getting sick, they would want to be tested, which minimizes the amount of testing materials that could have been used for a different person. If students do not return to school, most of them would not require getting tested. This would leave testing materials for other people such as front-line workers or essential workers.
Next, in the case that students returned to school, it would minimize the testing materials. This is dangerous because it means that there are fewer testing materials for people with preexisting conditions or disabilities. This also means that front line workers and essential workers have less access to testing materials. Data show that there have been 197,409,766 tests conducted, a little over 12% of the tests are done for kids between the ages of 12-17. Over a period of two weeks this percentage spiked up to about 41%. Interestingly the two-week period in which the tests being conducted for those children rose, was the same period in which schools started to re-open. Over a two weeks, period there was a 29% increase of COVID-19 infections amongst children. In opposition, people may argue and say that schools will not test students. The CDC says, “Testing efforts for K-12 students should focus on those with symptoms of the virus and those who may have had exposure to infected individuals”. Although this is useful in limiting the amount of testing done for students, it does not help the fact that students may still want to get tested as a precaution. Additionally, if a student has a family member who has a higher risk of getting the virus, they will want to test themselves to make sure that they will not infect other people. If students returned to school, this would also mean that teachers would have to be tested regularly. If a student brings the virus to the school, it will not only impact the students around the carrier but the teachers. In the current situation, teachers are going to school, but they are not interacting with students face to face. Testing is also particularly important keeping in mind the fact that there are about 100,755 hospitalizations due to the virus. Out of those 100,755 hospitalizations, 19,723 are in intensive care and 6,867 are on ventilators. If testing materials start to decrease, there would be a new crisis at hand.
Lastly, returning to school is extremely dangerous since an outbreak is extremely possible. The former health commissioner of Baltimore says, “It’s not a question of if, but when outbreaks will occur”. This quote clearly states that when schools open an outbreak will be inevitable. She also states that when there is an outbreak students will be forced to go back into online school. In this case, students will be having to transition back into online school, which would make it easier if schools were to stay completely online. If they stayed completely online students and parents would not have to worry about outbreaks because of schools. In addition to this, the country's largest school district in New York consisting of 1.1 million students was forced to shut down and return to online school. Many may argue and say that if there is an outbreak students can simply return to online school. They have already been doing online school for about a year. A common misconception with online school is that it is easier than in-person schooling. In Wake County alone 25% of high school students have an F average for at least one class. For middle school students, 28% of them averaged an F for at least one class. Another important aspect of in-person school is the student's social life. The students' social life also plays a key role in their mental health, which is being heavily impacted. Research shows that virtual meetings make it harder for our brains to process non-verbal information. Research also shows that students tend to learn and understand better when they are reading from a textbook when compared to reading online.
Through the data shared it is clear that it is a better idea for students to continue school online. Research shows that teens are twice as likely to contract the virus when compared to any other age group. Secondly, returning to school will cause students to start testing more and could create a shortage of testing materials. Lastly, an outbreak is highly likely which is very dangerous for not only students but their families and friends.
Sources
COVID Metrics / Overview. www.wcpss.net/Page/46759.
The COVID Tracking Project, covidtracking.com/.
“COVID-19 Trends Among School-Aged Children - United States, March 1–September 19, 2020.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 Oct. 2020, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6939e2.htm?s_cid=mm6939e2_w.
Hui, T. Keung. “25% Of Wake Middle and High School Students Failed a Class during Remote Learning.” Newsobserver, Raleigh News & Observer, www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article247237469.html.
McCrimmon, Katie Kerwin. “The Truth about Asymptomatic Spread of COVID-19.” UCHealth Today, 6 Nov. 2020, www.uchealth.org/today/the-truth-about-asymptomatic-spread-of-covid-19/.
The New York Times. “Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count.” 3 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html.
Nierenberg, Amelia, and Adam Pasick. “For School Outbreaks, It's When, Not If.” 16 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/for-school-outbreaks-its-when-not-if.html.
Pietrewicz, Ana. “Online Classes Can Have an Impact on Mental Health.” Massachusetts Daily Collegian, dailycollegian.com/2020/08/online-classes-can-have-an-impact-on-mental-health/.
“Screening K-12 Students for Symptoms of COVID-19: Limitations and Considerations.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/symptom-screening.html.
Strauss, Valerie. “Schools Start Closing - or Delay Reopening - as Covid-19 Cases Jump across the Country.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Nov. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/11/14/schools-start-closing-or-delay-reopening-covid-19-cases-jump-across-country/.
Jones, Carolyn. “Virus Outbreaks Unavoidable as School Campuses Reopen, Experts Warn.” 23 Oct. 2020, edsource.org/2020/virus-outbreaks-unavoidable-as-school-campuses-reopen-experts-warn/641848.
Woodbury, Stephen A. “Study Finds up to 7.7 Million Lost Jobs with Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance during COVID Pandemic in U.S.” www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/study-finds-77-million-lost-jobs-employer-sponsored-health-insurance-during-covid-pandemic-us.
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