Within just a couple of months, the Omicron variant has traveled with bewildering speed that has now hospitalized 132,646 COVID-19 patients in the U.S – surpassing the record of 132,051 set last January.
This massive influx of COVID-19 cases has been the cause of sporting event cancellations, flight cancellations, as well as reversing return to office plans.
And now, despite students and staff waiting to return from winter break with in-person learning, the Omicron surge has now put a halt on that too. It has forced thousands of schools to delay reopening or revert back to remote learning.
Across the nation, at least 2,750 schools were closed in the first week of January. White House officials and city halls are promoting schools’ opening with proper protection.
“COVID-19 is scary, but the science is clear,” said President Joe Biden in a news conference. “Children are as safe in schools as they are in any other place, assuming proper precautions have been taken.”
Educators and parents who preferred in-person learning worry whether the current public health guidelines will be enough to protect students and staff from the Omicron or not, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to keep schools open and reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students with a stockpile of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools. During his visit to an elementary school, Adams said “We want to be extremely clear: the safest place for our children is in a school building,” but parents are still in doubt about what to do.
Trisha, a New York mother of a 9-year-old son said she fears for her son in or out of school but being with classmates is far better for him than remote learning.
“He could get the virus outside of school,” she said. “So what can you do? You know, I wouldn’t blame the school system. They’re trying their best.”
But, the teachers union had asked the mayor to postpone schools opening for a week and it seems like some parents are still thinking not to send their kids to school. In Rochester, N.Y, about 40 percent of students were absent from classrooms.
Meghan McCoy, a mother in New Hampshire intended to send her child back to school in January, but the surge of the virus quickly changed that thought. “We can’t in good conscience send them back when the spread is so high,” she said.
The country’s third-largest education district in Chicago canceled public school classes by teachers demanding tougher COVID-19 protection measures. From the teachers union, 73% of rank-and-file union members voted in favor of working remotely. However, officials insisted that schools remain closed, which would result in teachers returning to schools to recontinue in-person learning. The district said classrooms will reopen with available staff on a school-by-school basis.
In Minnesota, the vast majority of schools have remained open, yet school leaders say that cases affecting students and staff are climbing exponentially. The number of staff absences has been rising steadily. Some schools are shifting to distance learning for three weeks. And even the open schools are closing after-school programs because of the number of bus drivers who have gotten the virus.
At the staggering infection rate of Omicron and the unknown recovery time, parents and officials are questioning whether the temporary, emergency shutdown of schools will solve this ongoing problem. They are looking for a permanent solution to a virus that doesn’t seem to be going away.
“Here’s what concerns all of my members: what happens when the next variant comes up?” says Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of American Association of School Administrators (AASA). “And what’s the issue going to be there? Is this going to be a temporary lull until the next variant comes out and then we’ll go through the same type of experience?”
Domenech’s concerns seem to be echoing throughout a country that has been uprooted from normal living and having to normalize the constant circumvention from this virus. Unless there is a practical plan in place, every new variant will result in chaos.
