Back To School?

As the school year begins across the United States, many administrators are questioning whether or not returning to school is safe. With Coronavirus still ravaging the U.S., tough calls must be made on whether or not students are safer if they stay home or return to school. However, when making these tough decisions, there is often confusion as parents, teachers, and experts toss around both accurate and inaccurate information in an attempt to sway administrators and school officials to "their side of the argument." In fact, few attempt to make decisions based solely on accurate facts, but rather allow inaccuracies and personal biasinfluence their decisions. This is often either due to a personal agenda or an inability to see past the lies. As a result, very few have made decisions by purely examining facts; however, it is important to understand which arguments are based in truth to be able to separate fact from fiction.

Before we can decide whether or not students should return to school, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each argument. Let's first begin with allowing students to return, in person, to school. The pros for this option are lengthy: providing classes online often leads to what experts call "virtual dropouts" as several students (20% of the population in one Boston school district) are not logging on to their online classes. Even if students are logging on to their online classes, many are not regularly participating in them like they would in a live classroom setting. Many educational experts observed that several students have just decided to log on intermittently each week or month of the school year (if they even long on at all.) However, if these students attended school in person, they would be forced to participate in classes and lessons, therefore ensuring almost maximum participation. Another reason many are advocating for a return to school is the fact that online schooling is exacerbating existing educational gaps. Many students who live without Wi-Fi, computers, or a reliable Internet connection are at a significant disadvantage, as they cannot access online materials and lessons needed to complete their schooling. Furthermore the students who are adversely affected are often low-socio economic students who face the worst conditions the education system has to offer. By forcing these children to attend online schooling, the school districts are exacerbating already large gaps in educational success within these communities across the country. Furthermore, many low socio-economic families lack the necessary capital to buy food. Schools have assisted by providing lunch and breakfast programs to families who cannot afford to feed their children three meals a day. However, if one were to close school, several of these programs would be in jeopardy of disappearing. A third reason many are advocating for allowing children back to school is because of the protection a school often provides students. When quarantine first began, 911 centers and abuse hotlines saw significant increases in child abuse cases as well as suicides among middle and high school students, college students, and tragically even elementary students. Forcing children to stay home and continue school online not only confines many children to abusive households (that they would otherwise escape if they attended school) but also restricts social interaction that many students battling depression and other mental illnesses desperately need. Finally, the last reason that many want students to return to school is to avoid the adverse affect online schooling may have on women. As many students (especially younger age children) are forced to stay home, parents will subsequently have to take care of their children throughout the day. This places a burden on parents who work because they will most likely be forced to quit their jobs or forfeit working at an office, therefore hurting possible advancement opportunities. Many believe that mothers will be predominate parent taking on this role. This byproduct of online schooling wouldbar them from advancing in their career. However, if students are able to return to school, mothers and fathers alike who care for their children will also have the ability to build careers and provide for their family.

Although there is a litany of pros for returning to school, there are also several cons to consider. While it is true that children are at an extremely low risk to die from the virus, there have been several cases involving children (either with or without pre-existing conditions) who have died due to the Coronavirus. By allowing children to return to school in person, the district is putting their students at risk of death. Furthermore, even if students contract the virus, but do not succumb to it, they could still bring the virus home to parents and grandparents who may be much more likely to die. However, some advocates of returning to school say that it is possible to ensure the safety of each student, and their families, by putting the right protective measures in place. However, according to several teachers and educational experts (including the real world experience of an actual student, me) attempting to force high school, middle school, elementary school, or even college students to adhere to social distancing guidelines or wear a mask is a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, several parents and student are vehemently opposed to receiving vaccines and or wearing masks. This means that schools, public and private, would encounter serious issues involving civil liberties. To counter these problems, many have proposed making in-person attendance optional while also having restrictions on those attending school in person. For instance: a school may say that a child must wear a face mask, get vaccinated (once a vaccine emerges) and practice social distancing guidelines if they choose to attend school in person. However, if a student cannot or will not follow these guidelines, they are more than welcome to stay home and complete school online until the pandemic is subdued. However, even this option is flawed if the quality of online schooling is worse than the quality of in-person schooling (or vice versa.) This would create inequality based solely on a person's freedom of expression (their choice to wear or not wear a mask) or a person's freedom of religion (as many who refuse vaccines often do it because of religious views.) This would inevitably cause even more arguments and legal battles than the first solution. Furthermore, the courts may shut down or temporarily stop certain districts from continuing in-person learning. We see a similar question debated in the Supreme Court Case: Tinker v. Des Moines. The case centered around three high school children who were protesting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. They planned to wear black armbands to display their grievances; however, the night before the protest, school administration created a rule banning students from wearing the black armbands in question. Nevertheless the students continued with the protest and were subsequently suspended. However, the students challenged their punishment in court claiming that the rule was in violation of their first amendment rights. The case ended in a 7-2 ruling against the school district and forced the school to rescind their rule and subsequent suspension of the students. This case is an example ofsupposed infraction against a student’s freedom of expression and could be extremely similar to cases that are brought against the school districts. However, instead of black armbands protesting a war, it will be student’s lack of masks protesting, what they believe is, an unjust rule. Finally, the last argument against placing children back in person is the fact that several schools already make students sick. Public school facilities received a D+ rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This means that several schools in the U.S. are dangerous for children to attend in normal circumstances; however, during a pandemic such conditions are even worse as several health experts say that school facilities have become a breeding ground for COVID-19.

With arguments on both sides, it can be hard to tell which choice is the "right" choice for the nation. I would argue that there is no perfect or singularly correct choice. I do not believe that one argument is more righteous than the other. I do believe, however, that both sides are attempting to achieve the same goal: the preservation of human life. Those who want to send children back to school want to ensure that low socio-economic children can have access to food and ensure that students who live in abusive households or who are considering suicide have a safe and protected place to be in a time of strife. In contrast, those who believe that school should not re-open want to ensure that students do not die of COVID-19 or that their friends and family do not become infected and die. Every school district has different issues, different demographics, different students, and different funding at their disposal. It is important to understand that what may be best for your particular school district, may not be best for a neighboring school district; and what's best for your child, may not be best for your neighbor's child. What is most important to remember is that before denigrating another person's strongly held beliefs, we each must first seek to understand why they hold such a belief so that we can work towards a solution that benefits everyone.

Citations:

Allen, J. (2020, June 24). Opinion | Yes, kids should be going back to school in the fall. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/24/yes-kids-should-be-going-back-school-fall/

Biden, J. (2020, July 29). Plan for Educators, Students, and our Future: Joe Biden. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://joebiden.com/education/

Martinson, R. (2020, July 18). I Won't Return to the Classroom, and You Shouldn't Ask Me To. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/opinion/sunday/covid-schools-reopen-teacher-safety.html

West, C., Mason, P., Brown, A., Owen, A., Boddington, M., Ross, M., . . . Gowland, A. (2020, May 28). Why We Shouldn't Reopen Schools. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2020/05/24/why-we-shouldnt-re-open-schools/

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