Too soon to open up

A recent Sunday Democrat-Gazette had a very good guest column, “A teacher’s statement of intent” by Jacob W. Morris. One major point was stated, “by the very act of standing in my classroom door, I would be telling my students and their parents: ‘See, I’m here; it’s safe … come on in.’ This I will not do.”

I applaud Mr. Morris. All our teachers need the tools and the space to innovate classroom teaching in this pandemic. The space is the main issue. Some schools are overcrowded already.

Also in that issue there was a very worrisome article, “Data: 62 counties miss safety target.” Dr. Deborah Birx was quoted: “If you have high case load … we’re asking people to distance learn at this moment so we can get this epidemic under control.”

Pediatric infectious-disease specialist Dr. Tina Q. Tan said areas that are 20 percent positivity rate or higher “definitely should not” open schools for in-person instruction. “You’re talking about people’s lives here.”

In this article 5 percent seemed to be the clear threshold for opening of the schools. There are only 13 counties in Arkansas that meet this criteria. Pulaski County is in the 5-9.9 percent category. Yell County was listed at 31.6 percent!

Governor Hutchinson has noted that the school year had been delayed “to give our communities more time to reduce the spread of the virus.” It has not been reduced. Reduction of the curve for 14 days hasn’t happened.

Governor Hutchinson and Education Secretary Johnny Key have only required five days of school.

Where is the PPE? Where are the needed funds and the needed space?

Based on no support as noted above and based on the positivity rate in Arkansas of 8.8 percent, in-person schools should not open.

JOHN MILLS

Little Rock