Quarantine Journals - School Decisions

So, I started off this morning watching a press conference with vice president Pence and secretary of education Betsy DeVos talking about returning to school. Apparently, this morning the president sent out a tweet saying that he was going to penalize local governments that were not reopening schools. And then Betsy came out saying that she was going to cut funding for schools that had opted to have virtual distance-learning options.  At the press conference, they talked a lot about Covid and testing and how they have so so many tests and all the things that they're doing to help out different hotspot states including taxes during this time. And then Mark pants got up to talk about how important it is that we get kids back into the schools because their mental health is suffering, and they're missing out on social opportunities, and that schools were funded by attendance blah blah blah. Then some random guy that I don't know got up and talked about how if we were to shut down all the schools they estimated at the economy would take a $50 million hits, but I don't know who was talking about completely shutting down any of the schools. Then the guy from the CDC got up and said that they had made several recommendations regarding schools Opening, but that they were just that… Recommendations and not requirements. Apparently part of what Trump was freaking out about was the budget to implement the CDC recommendations which the CDC was quick to say "hey these are just recommendations." So, bottom line, all anybody cares about is the economy, and no one's willing to spend any money to keep our kids safe. Meanwhile, the TEA is going to be working from home well into January, and all the meetings regarding whether or not schools should be held in person are happening virtually. So it's not safe for any of the adults to meet, but they are trying to convince I said it's perfectly safe to March our children into these Covid dens.

Betsy made a comment that Parents did great with distance-learning last year, and teachers did great with it, but that only 10% of the school population participated in distance-learning/any kind of learning, and then it was important that we didn't exclude 90% of the population by continuing to do distance-learning, and the kids were riding to her and begging her to please let them go learn some thing because they were so bored of doing nothing. What a crock of shit.

Reporters ask some really important questions, like how are you going to cut funding to schools that are overpopulated and have to go to hybrid learning models just to be able to safely accommodate any kind of population in the classroom? Which Pence didn't even answer. They ask questions about the fact that children are getting sick, and a 16-year-old just died, and nobody answered it. And I never even heard anyone ask the question about all the adults that are in the schools they were putting at risk, but I at one point I finally just got mad and walked away.

Shortly after the press conference, I did sit down and talk to Penny over lunch regarding what school is going to look like next year. I told her that the school districts were allowing parents to decide if their children were going to go into the school or if they were going to be doing distance-learning, and that her father and I had discussed it thoroughly and felt 100% confident in our decision that she would be the safest here. I told her that I know that she really misses her friends and she wants to see them, and that she misses her school and she wants to be there. But that it just wasn't going to be safe right now and that our number one job is going to be to protect her and protect our family. She considered it for a moment, and said "I wouldn't choose to go back anyway." I asked why, and she said "I don't want to go back just to see my friends if it means that I am going to get sick or get someone else sick." Once again, my seven-year-old understand the concept that adults are still fighting over several months into this.

Here is what I sent to the TEA and Greg Abbott:

It is irresponsible to send our children and teachers back to school during the middle of a pandemic, during the middle of a tremendous surge in cases, under the guise that "kids don't tend to get as sick."  Many children ARE getting sick, many teenagers are DYING or sustaining life long organ damage. What about your high schoolers? Do you have a virus whisperer that will explain to covid-19 that even though these kids are 16, 17, 18, 19, they are still in school and should be considered exempt from the dire consequences of getting ill? 

Have you even considered the teachers? The administration? The maintenance and cleaning staff? The cafeteria works and librarians? The counselors, nurses, and coaches? Last time I checked, they are all considered adults, many of which will have conditions that mark them as high risk.  What about the parents and grandparents that are raising these children? So if the kids do not get terribly ill, they can carry the burden of knowing that they brought the virus home to wreak havoc on the people they love? 

Perhaps it is time to start considering more than just the bottom dollar and stop listening to the voices that be who care about one things and one things alone: the economy. Stop incentivizing schools to bring the kids in when they are TELLING you that they have NO IDEA how to keep them safe.  Stop encouraging rigorous attendance stipulations for funding in the middle of a pandemic, both for IN SCHOOL AND VIRTUAL LEARNING ALIKE. 

It is time to STOP these ridiculous guidelines and time to stop trying to convince parents that is everything is going to be just fine. STOP all of this and start acting like you are PART of our COMMUNITY. Act like you actually care about our well being and understand the STRUGGLES all parents and grandparents are trying to overcome.

Schools are looking to you and you are giving them nothing but headaches and false reassurance. Isn't it time you started being real with all of us and taking your responsibility to this community seriously before it kills off more of our population?

Tania Cardenas

I am also continuing to send emails and make phone calls for Breonna Taylor, and now a gentleman named Vauhxx was assaulted while on a camping trip to look at the stars, and almost lynched by a group of white men. The entire encounter was filmed, and there were witnesses, but no arrests were made.

We finished Hamilton, and Penny got really sad at the end when she realized that the guy actually died. She cuddled up with Richard for a little while, and then came over to me and I hugged her while we both cried at the end. It was really, really well done. Quite the masterpiece. And it made me cry hard, so I have a love-hate relationship with it. LOL. I wanna watch it again for sure, so that I can pay true attention to everything that was going on. Penny said that she liked it "thumbs sideways" because a lot of people died and that was sad.

We boosted the mood back up again with some dancing, and then she headed to bed. She had a rough morning too. She found a picture of her and grandpa Rick, and did some crying and Richard's arms. It was both really sweet and really sad. Sometime she mentions that she misses him, but this was the first almost devastated complete sadness that I've ever seen overtake her since the year he passed. It's easy to think she's not grieving, but she is.  That's the picture of grandpa Rick that she's cradling in her hands here.  she very gently put it on the fridge for safe keeping afterwards.