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As many as 1,500 schools in England say they are willing to defy orders to send children back to classes unless there is further assurance that teachers, parents and kids aren't at unnecessary risk from COVID-19.
, governors in most states have ordered public schools closed for the rest of this academic year at least."I would rather any child repeat a year than go back too soon and have to lose a child," Howard Fisher, the principal of St.
George's Church of England Primary School, in Kent, wrote in an open letter to parents."There is no such thing as social distancing in a school — it does not exist and would never exist." Kids rarely become seriously ill with the coronavirus, but some British teachers, unions and parents worry about infectious children exposing vulnerable family members.was linked to schools a week after a third of the kids went back. Boots outside a classroom as Watlington Primary School, in Oxfordshire, England, prepares to reopen in June., fitted desks with barriers and checked pupils' temperatures. Likewise, British schools are being advised to stagger breaks and pickup times and to reduce class sizes from an average of 22 to 15. That raises logistical problems. Smaller classes mean more teachers and rooms — which many British schools, already stretched by a decade of austerity, don't have. Few deny that schools are a priority. But teachers and parents are still divided over whether the risks are too great. A survey by the pollster YouGov found that 50 percent of people were against reopening some classes June 1, compared to 36 percent for. "It's an absolute keystone and the first stage that needs to happen if we are going to get out of this," said John Dickson, 48, a clinical scientist who lives in Watford, north of London, and whose two teenage children have been learning from home. "We appear to have gone to some kind of cave mentality where we don't want to leave the cave because it's dangerous outside," he added."But we forget that, you know, risk is everywhere." Collins, in Abergavenny, said there is"no easy answer, and things really do need to be thoroughly considered before a decision is made." She added that"we will never know if things work until we try them out — this is something we can't stand still on."Friday’s Daily MAIL: “Let Our Teachers Be Heroes”
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