Don’t be secretive like DeSantis. When COVID is found in Miami-Dade public schools, tell us right away | Editorial
Ready or not, Miami-Dade public schools are reopening on Monday.
They are doing so under pressure from a crude and cruel threat from the state’s Republican leadership to either open by Oct. 5 or risk losing at least $85 million state funding. They are doing so despite scared parents and COVID-vulnerable kids. They are doing so even though the teachers union says schools still aren’t 100 percent prepared. Some teachers would rather retire than return to the classroom.
As important as returning everyone to school buildings as safely as humanly possible, is the need for absolute transparency from the school district. The community must know where the coronavirus has been found — and it will be found — in schools and its other facilities, how people will be alerted and what remedial measure will be taken — including shutting down again if need be.
As Florida leaders have shown again and again, the locals are on their own.
The governor has taken his coronavirus marching orders from President Trump, who was in denial right up until his Friday-morning tweet acknowledging that the virus had caught up with him.
Staggered reopening
Schools in Miami-Dade will not open all at once, but rather on a staggered basis. On Monday, about 22,000 students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade — in addition to those with disabilities — will return first. Two days later, 40,000 students will return to the classroom, including all elementary-school students and those in the sixth, ninth and 10th grades.
On Friday, 130,000 students will return. When given the choice, their parents chose in-person learning over virtual classes for their kids.
We have already lived through the devastating effects when DeSantis withheld where the coronavirus had been found from concerned families who had loved ones in nursing homes. That cannot, must not, happen here as Miami-Dade public schools confront their new, and uncertain, future.
Hispanic, Black kids vulnerable
Too many youngsters in this district already have targets on their backs. As a chilling NPR story revealed in September, “The vast majority of children dying from COVID-19 are Hispanic, Black or Native American, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers analyzed the number of COVID-19 cases and resulting deaths among people under 21 that were reported to the CDC between Feb. 12 and July 31 and found almost 400,000 cases and 121 deaths.
According to NPR, “They also found a staggering racial disparity. Of the children who died, 78 percent were children of color: 45 percent were Hispanic, 29 percent were Black and 4 percent were non-Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native.”
In a district in which, according to MDCPS’ own statistics, Hispanics make up 72 percent of the student population and Black students make up almost 20 percent, that is a cautionary tale if there ever was one.
DeSantis has made clear through some misguided actions, including insisting that schools open on Oct. 5, that we are our own saviors. In Miami Dade County, where schools were forced to re-open against school leaders’ better judgment, those same leaders must be absolutely meticulous and transparent in all that they do, from the moment students, faculty and staff walk through the school door to when they cross back over at the end of the day.
