Our school opening has been (or maybe is likely to be) postponed from August 13th to the 17th.
We'll probably be on a schedule that only has about half the students at school at any given time.
Even so, I don't see how we go a month without having to shut down and go to 100% distance-learning. Our case numbers and death numbers (in Oklahoma) are continuing to rise at exactly the wrong time. Over the last 7 or 8 days, we've got from having 400-500 new cases per day to 1200-1500. We've gone from having single-digit daily deaths to double-digits.
When one student comes up positive, the contact-tracing is going to implicate nearly the whole school. Every classmate and every teacher that the student has. Every kid that the infected kid sat near at lunchtime. Plus all the people that they have come in contact with.
We would have to shut down and stay shut down for who knows how long.
OKC schools will start the year with distance-learning. The Tulsa Public Schools superintendent has recommended the same policy.
The affluent, mostly white suburb of Owasso was going to start the school without even a policy on wearing masks. I think that they have reconsidered, or are reconsidering. The affluent, mostly white suburb of Broken Arrow I think is resistant to masks. One of the state school board members who voted against a mandatory mask policy was from B.A. I imagine that he is reflecting the majority opinion in his community. I know there's resistance in the affluent, mostly white suburb of Bixby to masks.
The affluent mostly-white suburbs seem to be the places most unwilling to require masks and most determined to open up ASAP.
I'm not particularly afraid for myself, but I don't want to bring it home to my wife. With all her autoimmune problems, I don't think she'd do well at all.
