Letter To The Editor: Local Pediatricians, With American Academy Of Pediatrics And CDC, Share Strong Recommendation For In-Person Schooling | RiverBender.com
Dated Aug 30, 2020As local pediatricians, in unity with the American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC, we write today to share our strong recommendation fo
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This points out that the current strategies for many schools is short-sighted, counter productive, and not well thought out. And the responses after the article demonstrate how people are quick to listen to experts, until they don't like what those experts are saying.
Couple of paragraphs worth noting:
Eliminating students from the classroom does not eliminate their risk of acquiring COVID19 from our community. When students are not in school parents must either cut back on work or find a responsible party to care for them. Some families are sending their students to daycares while others are piecing together childcare throughout the week. Either way, this is compromising the education of our young people and often nullifying the safety of ‘staying at home.’ At school, through cohorting and masking, we can control to a great extent the exposures the students have. Outside of school, students mingle without masks in uncontrolled settings, putting them at increased risk relative to in-person school and resulting in a rise in community numbers. There will be risk of infection during a pandemic, but it is important to consider that community activities and gatherings external to school are likely a greater source of transmission than in-classroom learning under the oversight of responsible adults.
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Remote learning represents immediate practical complications like poor Wi-Fi connectivity, difficulty engaging students who are uncomfortable communicating via Zoom, and spreading caregivers thin as they juggle their students and their own work responsibilities. The consequences of remote learning will be far-reaching and may last for years to come. Already we are seeing a significant increase in child abuse cases in our pediatric emergency rooms and treating more depression in our offices. Beyond the educational shortcomings of remote learning, children are missing out on critical services such as speech and physical therapy, assessment of learning disabilities, social skills development and counseling services, school breakfasts and lunches, and opportunities to identify and address abuse and food insecurity.