KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
By: Sarah Avanessian, Castaic High School English Department chair
Being a teacher currently is not easy. I am torn, as I’ve stated before. I want to be there for my students. I want schools open so that they are given services that they need and that many rely on. But I also want to keep them and the people they go home to safe.
I want to keep my colleagues and the people they go home to safe. I want to keep myself and the family I go home to safe. Can we say that the choices we are making will do this? It feels like we are starting school in August with our fingers crossed.
The politicizing of a new virus strain has left our nation and our community polarized. On everything from mask-wearing to opening schools, we are a community divided. How can we set aside political influences right now and take a step back?
Do we have enough reliable information to safely reopen schools and ensure that teachers, students, and our entire community will come under no harm from the virus? I’m not talking just about worst-case scenario with COVID-related deaths, but also other COVID-related complications that may be long term?
I still am left with unanswered questions even after sifting through news articles, reading online debates, and watching Dr. Ferrer’s Q&A. We can’t do the kind of rapid testing required to do this efficiently. We still have rising numbers in LA County and our own Henry Mayo opened a second COVID floor in anticipation of rising numbers.
We don’t have answers about risks, costs, or availability of childcare for teachers. If I must quarantine for 14 days, will there be enough subs… how does quarantine and contact tracing work in a high school setting with students moving between several teachers? What if students refuse to wear their masks? How can I ventilate my room when we have one door and no windows that open? Most importantly, how do I keep my asthmatic 8-year-old son safe as the school year progresses?
I miss my job as it was—the job I have dedicated my life’s work to and have done for 18 years in this district. I miss my students and our face-to-face interactions. But I am sacrificing right now which is why I also haven’t seen my grandparents who I haven’t seen in over four months because of the current risks.
I am not willing to jeopardize my family’s health, my health, my students’ health, or our community’s health on a hope that all of the unknowns are in our favor. Are we really going to open in person when LAUSD, Burbank, Montebello, and San Diego have announced they are not? Please consider full distance learning. Right now we need COMMUNITY… even if it is from a distance.
How can the SCV come together as a larger community to help homeless students and to combat mental health issues among our teens? How can we work together — district, teachers, parents, students, community members and support one another as we continue into the unknown? What are we risking if we start the year with our fingers crossed?
Sincerely,
Sarah Avanessian
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Thank you for your reasoned approach to this very serious problem. Distance learning is the only safe and practical way to operate given our given circumstances It is not a permanent solution to this crisis, but it is a workable, temporary and timely solution for now. I know will you get criticized for speaking up, but those who object are always inconvenienced by the truth.
Thank you, Sarah, for your clarity in laying out the facts, sifting through them and reaching an intelligent assessment of the overall situation rather than stating from a conclusion and attempting to justify something that cannot be. We all can learn from you.
Politics, religion nor economics should be placed ahead of the safety of our children. They are not guinea pigs nor lab rats to be used in forced experiments. We closed the schools in March, remember? The cases were still relatively low back then. Now with cases at an all time high some, like Bet$y DeVo$, are demanding they open. Ask yourself, Why?
Thank you for your thoughts. It’s a very complex issue with many unknown and moving variables. I’m not sure what the correct decision should be moving forward but I’d side for progress with extreme caution. I’d hate for youngsters to have to pay the price for the ignorance and politics of a very vocal few.
Oh woe is me,
Nobody said life is fair.
Political blah blah
Kids need you!
But YOU believe LIFE is CHEAP
PATHETIC
Private schools are all opening normal. As is Orange County. Our pediatrician is saying kids should return to school. Seek an opinion from the local pediatricians. You will be woke when you hear their response. It’s opposite of the Board Members who don’t seem to have empathy to the loss of education for our district.
OC, home of “No Masks / No Distancing” back-to-school where you can send your lambs to their slaughter. And with a privatized school you can even pay extra! Wow! What a deal! Besides, we all know Kids don’t spread or bring germs and viruses home… do they?
Private schools are not all opening as normal.
Taylor, if you are so sure it’s safe, I hope you will go to your local public school and help with the crowded hustle and bustle in the office, all day long, or help with the hundreds of people at dismissal at elementary school. Better yet, you can monitor the hall outside the bathrooms to make sure there is a limit to how many kids go in that small space at once. Or, help manage the kids who don’t conform to rules and make sure they wear masks and socially distance, although you probably don’t want to violate their “rights.”
There is an online-only option for parents who do not feel comfortable sending their kids to school. Where is the option for parents who are afraid their child is going to commit suicide if they have to continue being isolated? Where is the option for children who their only safe place was school? Unless these kids have zero contact with the outside world, meaning nobody in their household has gone back to work outside the home, they are at risk for contracting COVID, which in children the mortality rate is statistically at zero. Do you know the seasonal flu has a higher mortality rate in children than COVID does? Should high-risk children only be home-schooled? Life is not 100% safe, we all have an expiration date. Suicides and opioid overdoses are on the rise. We are prolonging this, every time things start to reopen there are going to be more cases, but the amount of deaths is going down. Please stop this nonsense and offer on-campus learning.
Stop with the double standard. It’s ok to shop, dine, gym, Starbucks, salon, mani & pedi but then you don’t feel safe going to work. But safe doing all things mentioned. Hypocrites. Maybe you should consider retirement since Covid isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I don’t know if anybody noticed but the English of this article is horrible for the head of the ENGLISH Dept. and teacher of the year.