Doing our part for our schools

I want my kids to walk through the doors of their school on Sept. 8 as badly as anyone else, but in watching the COVID-19 cases Kootenai County numbers rise, that possibility is dwindling away.

Even in uncertain and divisive times, we all value the health and well-being of our community, the education of our children, and a vibrant economy. Yet unless more of us show personal responsibility to help slow the transmission of COVID-19, we are jeopardizing all three of those things. We are putting both schools and businesses in the impossible situation of choosing between being open, and maintaining the health and safety of the people whom they serve. We are also risking the health of our neighbors, friends, essential workers, and the health workforce.

Opening schools for in-person learning is not a decision that the school districts can reasonably make in isolation of what is happening more broadly in the community. Last week, the Idaho Department of Education presented a framework for reopening schools, which included 3 Categories for Identifying our Level of Risk based on levels of community transmission. Based on numbers of the past 1-2 weeks, it seems that without a significant improvement in our individual and collective responsibility, it’s likely that come September we will find ourselves in Category 3: Substantial Community Transmission, which means “School Buildings Closed for Extended Periods of Time (longer than 6 weeks).”

The consequences of school closures and “involuntary home schooling” are devastating to our students, working families, and the economy. In a joint statement on July 10, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA) and AASA, The School Superintendents Association highlighted the importance of school not only for academic development, but also for the benefits of social and emotional skills gained at school, healthy meals and exercise, and access to mental health support and other services that cannot be easily replicated online. They went on to emphasize that “Returning to school is important for the healthy development and well-being of children, but we must pursue re-opening in a way that is safe for all students, teachers and staff. Science should drive decision-making on safely reopening schools. Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics.”

As a global health professional, I have been drinking from the firehose of COVID-19 tracking, data, evidence, and responses across the globe. With COVID-19, as with other infectious disease outbreaks that have barely touched the U.S., effective leadership at all levels combined with individual responsibility will be our best bets to restore something closer to normal while we wait for a vaccine and more treatment options.

Our public health and local medical leaders, elected officials, and leaders from the education and business communities have doubled down on their efforts to encourage, recommend, and remind us of the ways (which are based on evidence and science) we can all slow the transmission of COVID-19, and here they are:

• Physical distancing

• Face covering in public and when physical distancing of 6 feet is not possible

• Practicing good and frequent hygiene

• Avoiding large and crowded gatherings

• Staying home if you don’t feel well

• Contact your health care provider if you have been exposed or have symptoms to find out where to get tested

The interdependency of health, economy, and education have never been so evident as now, and the stakes have never been so high. The window is closing for us to slow COVID-19 transmission and increase our chances to safely reopen schools. We could wait until conditions worsen to take more drastic measures, but that will likely result in another year of devastating consequences on young people, their families, and our economy, worsen our existing economic and racial inequalities.

Let us affirm what we value through our actions. We have neighbors and friends who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 and rightfully worried about their health; students and parents for whom remote learning is barely feasible; businesses who depend on open doors and a healthy workforce; teachers and school staff who are putting themselves on the frontline and scrambling to ensure they teach and nurture their students effectively; and health workers who are caring for us, COVID-19 and everything else.

Coeur d’Alene is consistently a community of generosity, which makes it a lovely place to live, but maybe we need a different kind of generosity right now, which is to do whatever it takes to protect our neighbors, schools, businesses, and health care workers. We must all do our part.

https://www.sde.idaho.gov/re-opening/files/Idaho-Back-to-School-Framework-2020.pdf

https://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/

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Brinnon Mandel has 20 years of professional experience in the field of public health, primarily in global health innovation, program development and public-private partnerships. She is the vice president of Strategic Partnerships at VIA Global Health. She is a resident of Coeur d’Alene.