Are Schools Safe for Teachers?
Whether its members of your local school committee, New York Times Columnist, David Brooks, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Governor Charlie Baker, DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley or the CDC, when people cite “research” claiming that schools are safe, they fail to mention that they are referring to a “single” study (Yes One Study!) that was conducted in 17 rural Wisconsin schools, hardly representative of schools in the United States.
Even though 4,876 students and 654 staff members participated in this study, that sample size is relatively small considering how dangerous COVID-19 is.
Because the study was conducted in only rural schools, it is irresponsible to cite it to support the contention that schools are generally safe places for students and teachers everywhere around the country.
It is significantly easier for rural schools to achieve physical distancing and other mitigation measures than it is for urban schools, for example. Factors such as the physical size of classrooms, the number of students per class and the availability of outdoor space differs so widely between rural and suburban and urban schools. Many schools around the United States simply have less space than rural schools, like the Wisconsin schools cited in the “research.” Other factors such as school budgets, the availability of technology, the level of student compliance and district infrastructure that allow for appropriate contact tracing and proper quarantining are critical to keeping in school transmission low. The 17 rural Wisconsin schools in the study have unique non-generalizable factors that do not apply to schools in Boston, Worcester, Lawrence, Brockton or even to Framingham, Andover, Arlington or Plymouth.
Perhaps, most strikingly, the ethnic makeup of the rural population in the study was 92% non-Hispanic White. This is another reason why its results are not generalizable to other rural and non-rural school populations.
Since about 10% of infected people are responsible for about 80% of COVID-19 infections and children are more often asymptomatic, the incidence of infection among children is likely under-reported and the amount of both exposure and transmission is unknown. So, if you are a teacher forced to go back to work in the school building with children, you should assume that every one of your students is infected, all the time. Wear your mask. If you they are not sealed shut, keep your windows open, and run an air purifier with a HEPA filter constantly.
Despite the factors that reduce validity and generalizability, the infection rate in the Wisconsin study was still 3.7%. Does that sound safe to you? Not if you are one of the 3.7%. It’s easy for members of the local school committee or the state board of education to say it’s safe for you to go back and teach in person while they hold their monthly meetings on zoom. They are not sharing the air of an enclosed room with 20 or more potentially infected people. For middle or high school teachers, that means 20 plus people for 50 minutes at a time, five times a day. Those teachers may be exposed to over 100 potentially infected people per day.
Nobody wants to go back to teaching in person more than K-12 teachers. They know that their students’ cognitive, social and emotional development and their educational acquisition depend on it. But, they also do not want to die.
What can we do?
There is an answer. It would work. Schools would be safe, and it’s simple, but it costs money. 1. Vaccinate all school personnel on site, right now. 2. Double surveillance testing at schools. 3. Hire an army of temporary teachers to stand bye for teachers who get sick or are too vulnerable to teach in person now. 4. Retrofit school filtration HVAC systems to fit MERV-13 filters and 5. Improve contact tracing and quarantine protocols.
I know a medical device salesman who was recently vaccinated, because he was identified as an “essential worker.” I’m glad he was vaccinated. I don’t want him to get sick. I don’t want anyone to get sick, but if a salesman is an essential worker, then why isn’t a teacher?