Last year in our Oldest Grandson's School children were coming down with terrible respiratory problems. It was Mold. The school was CLOSED until repairs could be made and the children recovered. They eventually all returned and it happened again. They were sent to a different school with a split shift. It worked out fine.

I re-vote for homeschooling until we have a better vaccination some time down the road. If everybody's life is so important nowadays why risk children and the adult who teach and the administrators?

The people who are calling the shots should set an example by simulating themselves as students for two weeks and let's see what happens to them? Let them be the test units.

Had a conversation with our daughter who lives with our gandchildren 6 and 9.

They go to an excellent charter school in DC.

She thought the education the kids got last spring was not as good as live classroom instruction.

Talking to several teaches and it turns out they are deathly afraid of returning to the classrooms.

Our youngest is going into 1st grade. How does teacher socially distance herself from the younger ones?

We shut down our economy with lock downs and our country is in worse shape now with this virus than we were when the lock downs were first mandated. I can not believe this has happened to the most powerful country in the world. What is wrong with this picture?

We have too many people who are denying this pandemic, including our government.

They won't be able to maintain strict social distancing in the schools, it's not going to happen. Those who feel that the risk is too great to return to the classroom should home school their kids or do distance learning from the safety of home.

If there is a demand for distance learning there will be distance learning teaching jobs.

Healthy kids are getting together now and seeing their friends and they aren't wearing masks when they do it.

Who is to blame? Certainly not the children. The blame lies with the parents. Those parents should be setting a good example to protect their children by wearing masks and making sure their children wear masks. Then the children will feel it is a good practice to wear masks when having close contact with their friends.

The reality is that healthy kids are very low risk of getting sick. People aren't being callous when they let their kids play with their friends and teens/20 somethings aren't mean for wanting to have a social life. You can't expect young people to stop dating and falling in love. It's a natural and normal stage of life for them.

From what I've seen they are being careful bringing their kids around high risk people. They love their grandparents and don't want to see them get sick.

Sweden never closed their schools, zero deaths of school children from 1-19 years old.

One persons opinion...

1. We knew of the possibilities of this virus in January, early February. We, the country did nothing at all. The response to questions was simply that it is nothing, yet we know now that experts were telling a different story.

2. There is zero coordination in information for the public. One person says this, another disputes it. Leaders say one thing today, and the complete opposite the next. We have never, and still do not have “that voice of reason” to calm the country. We are all left to our own devices.

3. Even with the recent spike, we are getting mixed messages. We are told the experts (long time experts) do not know what they are saying, and we are told to trust the politicians.

4. Now our most valuable asset, our children have become a center piece of yet another tug of war.

We are rudderless...it’s that simple

1. We knew of the possibilities of this virus in January, early February. We, the country did nothing at all. The response to questions was simply that it is nothing, yet we know now that experts were telling a different story.

January 21. Fauci: This is not a major threat for the people of the United States. And this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.

Feb 17 Fauci: There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask, the risk is miniscule, people should be more worried about the annual flu.

March 9 Fauci: "If you are a healthy young person, there is no reason if you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship...."

There is a higher risk of serious illness to the teachers, aides and support staff including cafeteria workers and custodians who are precious to a lot of people and those people can spread the illness to seniors who will see one out of ten die if they contract the illness.

In response to GulfCoast, who mentions her/his teenage children and wanting them to be able to swim and drive and take other risks. Younger families are not as dangerously at risk of death as people who live here in The Villages. Many children have been visiting their grandparents here and could be carriers. Still younger people are experiencing some manifestation of the virus that are very worrisome, such as excessive clotting, causing strokes in young adults and skin rashes and congestion that can become quite serious. Long lasting damage to the lungs is also something that happens to younger people. The experts have really not had the time to assess all of the different ways this new corona virus damages the human body.

Many of us who live here in The Villages have had friends be hospitalized in the ICU and have lost friends to the virus. It is real and it is dangerous to seniors.

There was an excellent segment on NBC News about children returning to school. NBC talked to 5 leading pediatricians from across the country and ALL said they would send their children back to school. Here's the story:
5 pediatricians on the safety of schools amid pandemic

It's not 1 out of 10 seniors who die, according to CDC its 1.3 per 100. I have told you this several times.

Sweden also provided data on number of teachers who tested positive. The numbers are miniscule

Attachment 85208

New statistics say 7.8% of 80 year olds will die if they are diagnosed with Covid-19.

Coronavirus death rate: The latest estimate, explained - Vox

From WebMD.
"COVID-19 Death and Hospitalization Rates
The new analysis confirms earlier studies showing that both rates of death and hospitalization vary by age and increase with age. Children are least likely to die, with death rates in confirmed cases of less than 1% in newborns to 9-year-olds. That rose to 4.28% in people 70 and older, and to 7.8% in people 80 years and above.

While 11.8% of infected people in their 60s were estimated to have symptoms severe enough to need to be hospitalized, 16.6% of those in their 70s did. By age 80, 18.4% needed to be hospitalized."
"

These are the Infection Fatality Rates straight from the CDC website

0-49 years: 0.0005
50-64 years: 0.002
65+ years: 0.013
Overall: 0.004

Maybe someone should tell them they are wrong. :)

Can you imagine a young child catching this B.S. and not being able to be comforted by a Parent or Adult in the hospital? Forget the numbers. Keep them at home. Which is worse homeschooling or an experience like that?

My opinion is that it is not my opinion that counts. The way our country is organized is that I have ceded my opinion to the Government by the election process. Relative to schools , that decision rests with the local , state and, federal government .

I totally understand what you're saying, TV is a higher risk demographic than a neighborhood filled with school children is. Obviously, grandparents would have to use their judgement and it might be that visits with the grandchildren will have to be kept to a minimum while school in session UNLESS the children are distance learning/homeschooling or otherwise socially isolating.

I, myself, am within the age range of people living in TV, I just happen to have one still in HS and another in college. Not quite ready to make the move, yet, but I'm starting the research. Thankfully, there seems to be some promising treatments for this virus being discussed. This might be the answer we have all been praying for!

Is it possible one child could die if the schools are opened before a cure or vaccine is introduced? I feel very strong that until we are positive no child could possibly die, the it is a vile comment to say “open the schools”.

Every day, eight children aged 14 or younger in the US drown. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States.
So I have to assume based on you comment that you don't believe any child should be allowed to go in the water (or any pool). Because my guess is (and I could be wrong), that more children die from drowning than COVID-19.
So if one child could die.... we need to banish that in the school system.
If a child died playing on the playground... we can't open schools. If I child died because he ate something he was allergic to at lunch... we can't open schools.
Am I following you correctly?

The number of drowning deaths for kids in Florida actually doubled once the Coronavirus stay at home orders went into place. Most of the drownings appear to be taking place in pools.

Here, let me summarize this data for you, death rate per 100K population:

Sweden 54.27 #8 in the world
U.S. 41.33 #10 in the world

But you're right, the Federal response to the virus in the U.S. has been abysmal, and we're advancing up the charts (our number was 40.7 when I posted two days ago, Sweden's was 54.0).

Some teacher’s union want charter school abolished . Seems like they have a different agenda then the safety

Of children

Which ones?
Some experts masks others no mask
Some educational facilities open others closed
Experts? Please proved your sources

So do you seriously think no one will die from talking the vaccine? That would be a first.

The States direct their own response to the pandemic. For instance, the 4 states with the highest death rates in the world NY, NJ, CT and MA all decided to force covid 19 positives into nursing homes. Federal government had nothing to do with it.

We have what's called a Republic.

Some people do not understand our system of govt and with what is being taught today lots will not.

Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff this Morning - July 14 2020
The case for Re-Opening Schools - the first two paragraphs -

Everything else about the coronavirus has become politicized in America, so why not a return to school as well? That’s the depressing state of play as President Trump pushes schools to reopen while Democrats heed teachers unions that demand more federal money and even then may not return. The losers, as ever, would be the children.

***
The evidence—scientific, health and economic—argues overwhelmingly for schools to open in the fall. Start with the relative immunity of young children to the disease, which should reassure parents.

So... what you are saying is it is fine to sacrifice a couple hundred children as long as they are allowed to attend school??

It did NOT work for Sweden. Sweden is rapidly backtracking on the way that COVID-19 was handled. Sweden is saying they made a great miscalculation and regret most of the decisions that were made.

Children do not have resistance to COVID-19. Children were pulled out of the schools in the spring BEFORE COVID-19 took hold. It is much different now, and the children will suffer from the stupidity and negligence of adults (WHO ARE NOT THEIR PARENTS !).

Read the Article.. Read The Evidence
 

Villagerjim, I'd like to agree with you .. But then we would both be wrong ..

Children belong in school. If you want to hide in your house, that is your decision.
Children need the education and socialization during their formative years. Isolation is not a strategy.

Every year my kids went back to school they would catch colds. Kids spread germs. Teachers are scared they might get sick. Maybe by November this virus will be better?

I guess you missed the study I posted up thread. Sweden kept their schools open, not one student under 19 years old died from covid. ZERO

Not sure where your info came from but here is the chart June from the CDC
Coronavirus: COVID Deaths in U.S. by Age, Race | American Council on Science and Health

In states that weren't affected by the virus at all, I think it should be fine to re-open.

In states where there was minimal effect from the start to the present, I think it should be fine to re-open.

In states where there was significant effect from the start, but has seen significant continual reduction in the past 6 weeks, I'd think it should be fine to re-open with some restrictions - such as all kids and teachers have to wear masks, kids must stay in their seats which are spaced so that no kid is more than 3 feet closer to another kid (if they're wearing masks AND distancing 3 feet that should suffice), single-file in hallways, no activities involving any kid touching another during recess or physical education (so no football, softball/baseball, no volleyball, no tag races, etc). No schools should open unless they have a dedicated FULL-time nursing staff. In some parts of the country that are severely underfunded, the nurses are only there part time, and there's only one who moves from school to school on shifts.

In states where there's been a significant case load of positives and deaths, and there has been either no significant reduction OR an increase over the past 6 weeks, I'd say they're not even ready to *plan* a reopening, let alone actually do it.

A pandemic is a threat to national security, the feds should be highly involved. They have resources like the CDC and NIH that states cannot replicate. This Republic of ours could hardly be handling this crisis any worse.