Dying For An Education

For the past two weeks I’ve been speaking with students and parents concerning an education model that requires a return to in-class instruction.

I spent half an hour on the phone with a high school senior and her boyfriend, both of whom are terrified to return to school.

"I live with my grandmother," says Laura, a senior at a high school in El Paso, Texas. "I see the numbers and the age groups who mostly have COVID. What if I get it, am not showing symptoms, and cause my grandmother's death."

Among Laura's friends, this is a very real fear. It seems they worry that we are rushing headlong into a nightmare that will only lead to more loss of life.

"I'm like Laura," says David, Laura's boyfriend. "I'm being raised by my grandparents. Both are in their 70's. What if I kill them because of this?"

Still, parents are pushing their children back towards on-campus instruction.

"What am I supposed to do, take time off my job to care for my children?" asks Bill Written. "We can't take care of our children and hold a job. If I get put in this place it's the fault of the school system. They are there to take care of our kids."

I should note that both of Bill's children are high school students who would be able to adequately care for themselves once school is out for the day.

Then there is the other side of the coin. Michelle Garcia, a patient, said when it comes to her children, they will not be returning to class.

She also said we should respect choices made by others.

For two weeks I have spoken to parents and children alike. Except for only three parents in El Paso, everyone is worried about in-class, on-campus instruction.

When I began to reach out to others within the State of Texas, I noticed a harsh reality of thought.

“It’s just gotta be done,” says Jason Davis. “By making the Government, with a capital G, say you need to be keeping them kids home, you are putting Texans out of work. They gotta stay home and start either teaching or being the babysitter for them kids.”

Interesting how he views parents caring for their own children as “babysitting.”

“I am working for the time my babies are in the school,” says Maria Hernandez. “I need for this time to work. If I must stay home, then I not have the money for food and rent. If I make the application for the State to help with daycare, I will be deported.”

Then, there are the parents who feel that we are, in essence, “jumping the gun,” on reopening schools, as David Rodriguez says.

“We are forcing parents, grandparents, to become a decision maker for what may be a grim reality,” says David. “In essence, we are forcing people to decided if they want to sacrifice the health and life of their children, as well as their own health, by sending children back to school now, when we’ve yet to flatten the curve.”

“Are children going to get sick and die?” asks Miguel Diaz. “Yes. Will most of them live if that get that China flu? Yes. We need to know that just like kids die of the flu every day, some are going to die from this. We don’t need to all be Democrats and stay at home.”

I pointed out to Mr Diaz that during the 2019-2020 flu season the Centers for Disease Control says that there were between 24,000 to 62,000 deaths due to the flu. Of that number, the CDC says that only 166 children died of the flu.

“That’s bullshit fake news,” says Mr Diaz, before slamming the phone down.

The realty is thirty states have reported that children have died from COVID-19. Twenty states have reported no such deaths. However, looking at the data, children are dying from COVID.

===insert graph here===

The above graph shows information spanning from January to May 30, 2020.

“When I think of this,” says Jeff (he asked I not use his last name), “I worry.”

Jeff is a teacher in Texas.

“My students are all first graders. How am I going to keep a mask on them when I am by myself and have 32 kids to keep an eye on,” says Jeff. “It’s going to be an unmitigated nightmare.”

Jeff told me of a woman at his Church who told him not to worry. She said when she goes shopping, the kids she sees are well behaved and wearing their masks.

“I mean, they are with a parent, of course they are going to behave and keep covered. What is going to happen with someone at school, a staff member, is asymptomatic, and gives this to a kid? The kid gets sick, an older family member gets sick. I just do not like it. I don’t like it at all.”

Jeff went on to say that the district he works for said it is going to provide him an eight-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer and can of Lysol – per month. One bottle, one can. How do you make that last a month?

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I no longer have children. My daughter, she passed years ago. However, if I had a decision to make, I would not be sending my children back to school for in class instruction. We are just not able to effectively contain the virus, and we are betting with our children’s lives that nothing is going to happen.

As I drive around town, I can see that restaurants are not keeping to the occupancy limits imposed by the State of Texas. Bars are skirting the closure law by obtaining restaurant licenses and serving only a token amount of food. It’s easy to see that no one cares, no one gives a damn what happens to anyone, much less their own children.

This in the time when some also say that “all lives matter.”

Even today, when I visited Walmart (which later turned into my visiting three other Walmart’s and spending an hour in each, watching staff to see what they are cleaning) I noticed that employees are no longer cleaning the self-checkout between uses. In other lanes, credit card readers are likewise being neglected, as are shopping carts.

COVID numbers are going up in Texas, and it seems no one cares. What makes it worse, the responses on how we should move forward have been drawn along political party lines.

It’s sad to sit and watch so many people value money over human life, willing to sacrifice entire generations for the ability to keep their pockets full. It’s even more sad when our government is just as bad. Yes, the economy is important, but how can we hope to keep the economy running if there are not enough people able to work because they are deathly ill, or worse?

Right now, the numbers in just the city of El Paso alone, show that 2% of the population have tested positive for coronavirus. This might not seem like much, but it means that 2 in every 100 people are known to have it. This statistic does not account for those who haven’t been tested.

The best course of action that I can see is that if the government wants to give states funding for schools, if they truly care about the well-being and education of our nation’s youth, then those funds should be used to insure all students have the tools and ability to attend class online until we can overcome this pandemic.