Parents see few options as school year begins

WOODSTOCK, GA. »— John Barrett plans to keep his daughter home from elementary school this year in suburban Atlanta, but he wishes she were going. Molly Ball is sending her teenage sons to school in the same district today, but not without feelings of regret.

As the academic year begins in many places across the country this week, parents are faced with the difficult choice of whether to send their children to school or keep them home for remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many are unhappy with either option.

“I definitely think it’s healthy for a child to go back to school,” said Ball, who feels her sons, William and Henry, both at River Ridge High School in Georgia’s Cherokee County district, suffered through enough instability in the spring. “At the same time, I wish they weren’t going back to school right now. It’s very scary.”

Offering parents choices eases some of the problems facing schools. If some students stay home, that creates more space in buildings and on buses.

But the number of families with a choice has dwindled as the virus’s spread has prompted school districts to scrap in-person classes — at least to start the academic year — in cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, as well as parts of the South and Midwest where school is starting this week.

Many districts that don’t begin instruction until after Labor Day are warily tracking the virus — and weighing concerns of educators and parents — as they consider plans including hybrid approaches, with inperson learning at least a few days a week.

In Cherokee County, administrators have stuck with plans to offer inperson school five days a week despite pressure from some parents and teachers. The countywide district also rejected demands to require masks inside school buildings. The families of about 23% of Cherokee County’s 43,000 students have opted for them to learn remotely from home.

Barrett said the mask decision contributed to his decision to keep Autumn, who is in a special education program, home to start third grade at Bascomb Elementary School.

“At a minimum, there ought to be a mask mandate, and maybe a staggered schedule. They’re not interested in responding to the realities of the virus as it’s happening in Georgia,” Barrett said.

Annual Sturgis rally stirs virus concerns

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. » Sturgis is on. The message has been broadcast across social media as South Dakota, which has seen an uptick in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, braces to host hundreds of thousands of bikers for the 80th edition of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

More than 250,000 people are expected to rumble through western South Dakota, seeking the freedom of cruising the boundless landscapes in a state that has skipped lockdowns. The Aug. 7 to 16 event, which could be the biggest anywhere so far during the pandemic, will offer businesses that depend on the rally a chance to make up for losses caused by the coronavirus. But for many in Sturgis, a city of about 7,000, the brimming bars and bacchanalia will not be welcome during a pandemic.

Though only about half the usual number of people are expected at this year’s event, residents were split as the city weighed its options.