By 
Posted July 14, 2020
By Gary A. Johnson – Founder & Publisher, Black Men In America.com
If this country cannot come together with a coordinated effort to safely open schools and protect our children, God help us all.
I don’t understand why some people accept the advice of politicians who have NEVER cared for a patient or conducted research over medical doctors and researchers who have a track record of treating sick people and saving lives.
Infectious disease experts say wear face coverings and avoid indoor gatherings. The last time I checked, schools and classrooms are indoor gatherings. The doctors and scientists say “NO.” The politicians say “YES.” If you are a parent, teacher, school staffer, or bus driver–what do you do? The President has threatened to cut school funding and says that his own administration’s CDC guidelines are too tough, expensive and impractical.
Last week The White House said it will issue its own guidelines for re-opening schools. If you are a school administrator, part of your job is to protect the children.
The following set of questions were posted on Yvonne D. Williams‘ Facebook page. Yvonne is a retired educator. Everyone who is responsible for protecting our children should debate and answer these questions. Once you read these questions, you will see that this is a “no-brainer.” Thank you Yvonne. Your questions make this a “mic drop” moment for me. I’m done.
According to Yvonne D. Williams its not time to re-open schools. We should not sacrifice our children and teachers! Here are the questions to discuss for school openings:
• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?
• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?
• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids’ families need to get tested? Who pays for that?
• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?
• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?
• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?
• What if a student in your kid’s class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?
• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?
• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?
• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?
30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65. We are choosing to put our teachers in danger.
In summary, we need to find a safe and coordinated way to SAFELY re-open schools. We also need to follow the advice of our public health officials, scientists and infectious disease experts and STOP listening to politicians who re-tweet advice from a former game show host. I acknowledge that we don’t know everything about the Coronavirus. We should practice and model what we do know to protect ourselves and our children.
In 2019, Gary developed a line of spices under the name of “MasterChef Gary’s Premium Organic Seasoning.”
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