SHOULD THEY STAY OR SHOULD THEY GO?

 By Tamsin Vidal

October 2020

All names have been changed out of respect and safety for those featured.

   (Top Picture: Twins Jack and Josie watching their daily online zoom class.
Bottom Left Photo: 2-year-old Molly playing in her school’s playground.
Bottom Right Photo: Siblings, Michael and Mary, having screen time after arriving home from school.)

        Lying on their bedroom floor with a half-eaten sandwich by their side, 4-year-old twins Jack and Josie stare at their small iPad screen. Josie is sucking her fingers, while Jack rests his head on his arm, both look like they could fall asleep at any moment. But it isn’t naptime that is taking place in their Brooklyn, NY bedroom, it’s their zoom school time with their pre-k teacher.

        Since March 16th, 2020 when New York Governor Cuomo issued an executive order closing all schools statewide because of the novel coronavirus, many children, including Jack and Josie, have been learning from home. But with the progression of time, New York City has been able to stabilize their amount of cases, and Mayor de Blasio recently announced that NYC public schools would reopen for in-person learning again -- offering hybrid classes (a mix of in-person and remote teaching) and staggered scheduling. 

        With schools reopening, de Blasio experienced extreme pressure from unions and educators who said his New York City schools weren’t safe for in-person learning. Many of these school buildings offer poor ventilation, windowless classrooms, disorganized distribution of personal protective equipment, and many teachers still needed to implement a blended learning model. Despite this, de Blasio announced that kids could start going back to school for the first time in six months on September 29th, 2020. But many parents opted to keep their kids home and to learn remotely. 

        Jack and Josie live on the Redhook and Carroll gardens border in Brooklyn, NY. Less than two miles away from their home is the Cobble Hill Health Center, whose nursing home reported the most Covid-19 related deaths out of any nursing homes in the nation, back in April. A factor that played into their mom Anna’s, a public school teacher, decision to keep them home.

        “People are shocked that I’m keeping them home,” Anna said. “But I don’t feel the Department of Education’s plan is strategic and safe enough. As a teacher, I feel the plan that they put in place to reopen schools is problematic because it doesn’t consider the idea that children might not social distance outside of school. And how do they expect kids to socially distance? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

        “They’re in pre-k, and part of the pre-k curriculum is based on interaction and play. There’s not enough room for that with social distancing. What they are going to school for versus what they would be getting is nowhere aligned. My babysitter could do a better job at it.”Anna struggled with her decision. She doesn’t feel zoom is developmentally appropriate for her children’s ages and does feel they are struggling. Their entire zoom school day is 21 minutes. “I’m lucky to be able to afford my babysitter,” she said, who supplements the zoom classes, as both she and her husband work full-time.

        Less than five blocks away from Jack and Josie are parents Krista and Kevin, and their three kids: 5-year-old Michael, 4-year-old Mary, and 2-year-old Molly. With their eldest starting kindergarten, the parents decided it would be best to send their children back to in-person learning. 

        “We think the socialization of a kindergartener is how they learn,” Krista said. “I think it’s super important to learn with other kindergarteners when you’re that age. I just can’t imagine it working solo.”

         “We could teach reading and writing ourselves,” Kevin added. “But we can’t teach the experience of being in a group of his peers. It’s a vital thing.”

        The family tried online learning last school year, with the kids pre-school. “It was unsuccessful, to put it lightly,” said Kevin. “Neither of our kids were interested in watching the iPad (zoom class.)” Michael and his sisters joined in the zoom lessons for about two weeks, but after that they abandoned them -- since all were still in pre-school at the time, the classes were optional. 

        Michael, Mary, and Molly’s schools are taking many precautions with reopening; like online health survey forms that must be filled out every morning, taking their temperatures before entering the school building, and of course, wearing masks 24/7 when at school.             

Despite all these precautions, Krista and Kevin still have fears about sending their kids back to school.

        “If the kids did catch it, the thing I’d be most frightened about isn’t my personal health, or the personal health of Krista or any of the kids, because they’re not at-risk,” Kevin explained. “My biggest concern would be that we would give it to someone else. That it would pass on through us, and indirectly via our actions someone would die. I would be shattered if that happened.”