Letter: Let’s Support Each Other As We All Work To Control This Raging Virus
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The Amherst Public and Regional Schools have always prided themselves on providing the students of this community a consistently exceptional education, and the dedicated faculty and staff have continued to improve upon the curricular offerings that make this system one of the best in the Commonwealth. In fact, this school system is often the reason why parents move to the community and raise their families here. Even during this global pandemic, the dedicated teachers, paraeducators, and administrators have continued to work tirelessly to make this unprecedented moment in history the best it can be. And we have taken on very important challenges: our professional development around dismantling white supremacy culture, the curricular changes to promote inclusion and diversity, and the social justice work being done around discipline and conflict resolution are a testament to the love and dedication all of the adults in the system have for the students in their care.
And it is from this place of love that we believe the safest course of action for everyone involved is for the children and adults of our academic community to remain safely at home. For reasons that none of us can control, this virus is raging across the globe with the United States, sadly, leading with increases in new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Neither Massachusetts nor our own county are exceptions to this horrible reality, and this is the reason our buildings are closed. However, rest assured that school is definitely open as teachers continue to teach and students continue to learn. Is it ideal? Of course not, and educators want nothing more than to be back in the classroom working with students. It is a difficult situation for everyone involved, but the time will come when students will be able to play and eat together once again, when their laughter will fill the halls, and when they will engage with a strong, meaningful curriculum guided by caring adults. Unfortunately, this is not that time.
Nor is this the time for division and self-interests to prevail. In many respects, those are what have put us in this position. Instead, let us come together as a community to support our children and this dedicated staff, and make the necessary, temporary sacrifices that will ensure the health and safety of all of us. In short, let’s stay home. Then, when we finally beat this virus, we will know that we were strong, that we made the right decisions, and that we were not guided by a desire to quickly return to normal. Instead, let us be guided by our love for one another. Let us show our children that we came together and endured so that we could create something better.
Chris Herland
Chris Herland is the proud parent of an ARHS graduate. He currently has two children attending the high school. He has been an English teacher at ARHS for 21 years.
Two quotes from Dr. Fauci are relevant here.
1) “My approach is always, and I’ll say it whether I’m in Connecticut or in any other place, is that the default position should be to try, as best as you possibly can, to open up the schools for in-person learning.”
2) Dr. Fauci was asked about teacher’s fears about returning to the building during a meeting in Rhode Island. He responded, “It’s never completely risk-free, but for goodness’ sake, we are living in a historic pandemic. We’ve never had anything like this…, so it really is a challenge. You can’t interrupt your life totally, indefinitely. You have to try to safely get back to normal.”
More recently, our own Amherst health director reiterated leaning on the experts ‘to be the experts’ in this situation and that “The guidance is that children with in face learning is best if we’re able to do it safely with the appropriate measures.”
The frustration coming from families reflects that we have seen the APEA flout all of the expert recommendations to use remote learning as the default and to create their own metrics for the conditions under which in person learning is safe (APEA indicated 1 case per 100,000 in August– essentially when the pandemic is over). These views and the current metric in the MOA (28 cases) differ substantially from CDC, Harvard, and DESE recommendations (56-70 cases per 100,000; no one number triggers a shutdown, etc). Ignoring expert recommendations is arguably acting in “self-interest” rather than in the best interest of the children and our community.
To date, the APEA has not addressed the fact that we are very clearly not aligned with any expert recommendations or the data throughout the fall from CT (much of which reopened), our own Hampshire County schools that have remained open, or Dr. Emily Oster’s national data— all supporting that “schools are not super-spreaders.” I note New England data because while Dr. Fauci told CT and RI to try to reopen schools, he told southern states that they should not— these are our points of comparison, not Georgia.
The APEA’s unwillingness to “let the experts be the experts” and to align the MOA with scientific recommendations is the crux of this situation.
Fauci on in-person as default (approx. 8:50).
https://www.wfsb.com/news-conference-dr-fauci-joins-gov-lamont-to-answer-coronavirus-questions/video_a2acbbbc-726e-56f9-a8fc-94cc51d93bf4.html
Fauci on teachers’ fears (approx. 1:00). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wavrhJHdv3M
Health director’s statement (approx. 20:45). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Qpw_L9PuI&list=PLcnmFtV6BPFPLtaEn4ixY3ONH_ePa6TpV
APEA statement of no more than 1 case per 100,000, which is arguably the reason the School Committee felt the need to agree to 28 rather than the 70 recommended by Dr. Morris in August, prior to the release of DESE’s guidelines.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tRGRHRZphBXKaFxdJV8eztNTR_kJzM7d/view?fbclid=IwAR0Tn37xxEahgokVCNH-z99G4dfvtu4xW9VGbZGGfZ2JT8E99Ck7Znr6itM
Dr. Emily Oster’s data
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/schools-arent-superspreaders/616669/
Allecia points out above the many, many reasons why we need to look to the experts instead of “trusting our gut” as to when it is safe to open schools. I don’t say this to be dramatic but to be real – I just messaged my 8-year-olds doctor to ask for help dealing with his declining mental health due in no small part to extended remote school. So perhaps yes – right now, at this stage of the pandemic – we should not open schools even if the data leans heavily against any evidence that schools contribute to spreading. However, we 100 % should have been in school on September 16th and even sooner. I can’t help but think that with 1- 2 months of in-person school before shutting back down would have done so, so much to build teacher-student relationships and “fill up” some of our student’s social buckets. If we did that – if we didn’t let self-interest and unscientific fear drive us to stall and delay opening for so long – I would not be so worried for my son and his peers. The Union – APEA – has given zero indication that they will be willing to renegotiate the metrics so that when ( being optimistic) cases start going back down, we can take all the data collected since September and making a better decision for our community. So I would encourage Chris, whether he is a member of APEA or not, to note that one really great way that the APEA could show that we are in this together and that they do care about our students is to agree to revisit the MOU and base decisions on reopening in science, local situations, and the holistic health of our community. This doesn’t mean they are agreeing to go back today, this only means they are willing to work with our community. This is really not too much to ask.