World news – US – New York City prepares to close schools

The nation’s largest school system is on the verge of closing classrooms as coronavirus cases rise.

New York City, which was once a global epicenter of the pandemic, has much lower community infection rates than most parts of the country, but the numbers are rising rapidly. On Friday, the seven-day test positive rate increased to 2. 8 percent. If that rate reaches 3 per cent, schools are supposed to close, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said that could happen as soon as Monday..

Our colleague Eliza Shapiro, who covers New York, wrote that « the move – which some city council officials now view as a matter of when, not whether – is perhaps the biggest setback yet for the city’s recovery. ». City schools.

Hundreds of thousands of parents (including Adam, who has two young daughters in a public school) gathered ways to send their children to the classroom during this broken school year, even for a few days a week.

For many, the looming reversal is a fatal blow. Schools have reported few infections and exceptionally positive rates well below the city average. As regular readers of this newsletter know, experts say children, especially primary school-age children, are not at great risk of spreading the virus..

“It is less likely that you will encounter someone with the infection in school than you might be out of school, and not just a little but a lot,” Dr.. . Jay Varma, the mayor’s chief public health adviser, said last month.

Evidence has steadily increased that indoor eating is a high-risk activity. Restaurants, gyms, cafes, and other crowded indoor spaces that cater to adults likely account for about eight in 10 new infections in the first months of U. s. Coronavirus pandemic, according to a new analysis that used mobile mobility data from 10 U. . s. Cities from March to May.

But in New York City – and in other cities across the country that have closed schools or are late to reopen – restaurants, bars and gyms remain open..

“Public schools in New York City may have to close because the city and state felt that they should only allow people to eat inside and exercise in the gym, all we need to know about how much our community values ​​public education,” our colleague Nicole wrote Hannah Jones on Twitter, “Especially when it comes to low-income black kids from &.

There are no easy solutions to this dilemma. Teachers understandably worry about catching the coronavirus at work. Their unions are firmly standing by the city’s promise to close schools if virus rates cross a threshold.

But officials must also balance the livelihoods of restaurant workers and other service industry workers, many of whom are low-income and people of color, with attempts to save lives during the pandemic.. Officials also have to balance the survival of today’s economy versus educating a generation of children, as Elisa and our colleague Sharon Uterman said today..

However, Elisa and Sharon write, « The city appears to be heading toward a new, conflicting status quo, asking hundreds of thousands of children to learn in front of their laptops even as New Yorkers keep booking an indoor dinner. ».

Conclusion: New York City may soon crack down on children’s movements and their ability to learn, even though it is adults who are spreading the virus.. « Finishing personal instructions for now would be a mistake, » the Times editorial board wrote this week in an editorial titled « New York City Should Pause Eating Indoor »:.

Cost: Online learning has had dire consequences for students ‘academic progress and mental health, their parents’ lives and livelihoods, and the speed with which cities and countries can begin to recover from health and economic disasters unleashed the virus.

Global context: Many countries in Western Europe have prioritized keeping classrooms open rather than bars and restaurants, even as cases increase. NPR wrote a clever analysis of how Europe did this.

“I felt like I was trapped in my little house and everyone was away,” Aya Raggie, a 14-year-old student in Brooklyn, told our colleague Emma Goldberg. “I was so lonely. All the sad things that I was ignoring, I realized I couldn’t get rid of them anymore.

Before the pandemic, she attended class, hosted movie nights for friends and practiced kick-ups with her ski club. Then, when the schools closed, I stayed home. Nothing could distract her from the grim news, as she stared at her laptop for hours during the virtual class.. I stayed awake until 4 a.m.. M. Her mind is racing with anxiety.

“A lot of adults think teens find it easy,” she said. « But it affects us more.

A recent study found that nearly a third of the 3,300 high school students reported having felt sad or depressed in recent months.. Warning signs include extreme risk behavior, significant weight loss, excessive drug or alcohol use, and drastic changes in mood, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.. .

A University Perspective: “Students in desperate need of mental health resources during a global pandemic have been left in the dark,” Bridget Earley and Andrew Favakih, journalists at Butler University, wrote in an opinion piece on the effects of mental health on quarantine.

Eugenio Garza Garcia told the Yale Daily News that the Ivy League has canceled all sports competitions this winter and postponed the spring season. .

As cases rise, the University of Connecticut has quarantined all dorms a week before students plan to go home on Thanksgiving and the rest of the semester, Ashley Angelisano told The Daily Campus..

Tulane University is working with a local hotel to house quarantined students. There are at least 60 students who have tested positive for the virus, and there is room for more than 150 other students, Gabi Abrams told The Tulane Hullabaloo..

Syracuse University, in New York, moved classes online as the number of cases rose, as it ended in-person lessons early in the semester, Michael Sisa told the Daily Orange..

After weeks of single-digit cases, West Virginia University reported more than 60 positive test results over a three-day period this past weekend.. Duncan Slade told the Daily Athenaeum that social gatherings and fatigue from the Coronavirus are to blame.

Good read: When students at Loyola University New Orleans test positive, they receive a call from a fellow student. A team of eight student-staff members is in charge of contacting their infected peers to conduct contact tracing. Now, cases are on the rise. « It was an absolute mess, » said one of Emma Robbie’s tracked students on The Maroon.. Go from four to five calls a day to 26 or 27 calls. I’ve been working for 15 minutes and called 11 people.

The state’s governor said Thursday that New Jersey is not yet planning to close its 3,000 schools. But some individual regions will suspend personal learning until 2021. Others have had to switch to distance learning because many employees are in quarantine.

in Bellevue, Washington. A small group of parents and students gathered to protest the school closures. A 15-year-old said, « I want my teachers to know that I am struggling at school and need help. ».

In Boston, students at four public schools may be able to return to classes on Monday, although the teachers’ union has yet to sign the plan.

Chronic absenteeism increased by 89 percent among elementary students in 11 California counties, compared to this time last year, according to The 74..

Rising cases in Minnesota are pushing teachers out of the classroom. Now, schools are struggling to find replacement teachers, although the classroom transition is less than what experts feared.

Good read: The epidemic is ripping apart education. Erica Christakis, an early childhood educator, writes in The Atlantic that distance learning exposes personal education problems that have been damaging students for years..

Our colleague Danny Blum asked parents across the country what it was like to raise children during a pandemic. The health crisis began when Sisse Flores’ son was 4 months old. Since then, they have barely left their Montreal neighborhood.

“From the second I wake up to the moment my son sleeps, I just work on it,” she said. “I don’t have much moments for myself. It’s just 100 percent parenting.

New York, School, Bill de Blasio, Coronavirus