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The complete disregard being shown in universities to the health of the people that work there is pretty fucking appalling. The plan that's being foisted on us involves students and staff "self-monitoring" and then putting symptoms into an app so that they can get people into the dorms in the fall. The provost has already made sure that people know that they can be forced back to campus at the whim of the administration. Of course, the people most as risk are the minimum wage janitorial and food service staff and they are the least protected. Admin seems to also be viewing the virus as an opportunity to engage in a little disaster capitalism - pay cuts, furloughs, layoffs, department closures. All this at a school with a president who considers himself a liberal.

Can't even begin to imagine how much worse it is in the K-12 schools.

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Great piece. I'm really feeling a sense of despair today. Even if we (by which I mean the political leaders) decide to get serious now, it's too late. The death cult is everywhere. I live in suburban California, a hotbed of the #Resistance, and people are just living their lives they way they did a year ago, but with masks if they are indoors. That's not going to stop this thing given where we are. People aren't going to let us shut down again.

Everything is fucked. I'm glad for your piece and for this community - it helps me at least feel like I'm seeing the world clearly. Thanks.

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All I can say at this point, is my dad is a teacher and my mom is a cancer survivor and I'd really like if neither of them died because my dad caught covid from a student.

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My partner is a high school history teacher. Where we are, every neighboring district in every direction has committed to a full semester of distance learning, but her school board is composed mostly of these death cultists and refuses. And what's most infuriating, they mask what they're doing in the language of "equity," claiming they're protecting bipoc kids who will fall behind in distance learning. Which is the exact opposite of real equity, which would be keeping them and their families safe from a disease that's disproportionately ravaging their communities. Maybe, y'know, spending some money to make sure everyone has access to computer and stable internet. It's maddening.

And meanwhile my partner and I spend every night agonizing over whether she should quit a job and a life she loves because she doesn't want to be a part of this nightmare.

Anyway, great writing Samantha.

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What we got was an initial plan of students being in-school 2 days a week and the rest online. It just seemed immediately like a plan that doesn't work for anyone--parents aren't able to work full-time, students have a bizarre hybrid of online stuff and not enough social time, teachers have to do double the work of both in-person learning AND online homework. It was supposed to be a way to get kids back on track safely, but it doesn't seem to actually achieve any of those goals.

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As someone with a similar sick-prone existence during elementary/middle school, the description of the nurse visit brought back the exact NOISE that springed sheath made, and the clang into the plastic-bag-covered trash can. Very bizarre. Haven't thought about that... ever.

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I'm glad our state (CA) has moved all K-12 classes online for the Fall. While it's certainly better for the kids to be there in person, for the safety of teachers and families, it's better to run it this way.

I fully acknowledge that our family is in a position to weather this (able to work from home, special needs student with access to resources) and many families aren't...or students don't all have the resources (technology, support, etc.) available to them. It makes the government's lack of support for schools and families even more egregious (my ire is directed at the federal level, not at the state). This "pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps" nonsense is for the birds (no disrespect to birds).

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We're over here in Minnesota just praying the Governor announces online and distance learning for the fall, meanwhile private sporting groups like flag football squads, intermural soccer teams and the like are already holding practices and many people (including my girlfriend's co-parent) are enrolling kids into fall sports like it's business as usual.

Sure would be nice to have some sort of federal guidelines that, you know, didn't rely on the death of poor people in the name of economic growth.

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a) If you still have your tonsils, you need to ditch those bad boys. Your childhood symptoms sound just like what my 6 y/o had. Tonsils came out last fall and it's been soooooo much better. That said, my wife's twin sister had hers out as an adult and it sucked. It helped, but unpleasant recovery. b) I have seen some some health experts I follow advocating for opening schools, but the critical piece never mentioned by many, like the Missouri Gov, is the caveats they include, like proper ventilation, testing, cleaning, etc. Yes it can be done, but we aren't ready to do it right yet, from a logistics or a funding standpoint. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/20/opinion/listen-science-reopen-schools/?p1=HP_Feed_ContentQuery

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