I have a lot of thoughts about this piece in The Washington Post. Thread.

First, I wish the general public cared this much about equity when we aren’t experiencing a pandemic. Urban schools are routinely underfunded. Equity issues caused by poverty and systemic racism are deep-rooted. Teachers have asked for help for years.

Let’s take a look at Philly schools (not too far from me). This is an article from May 2020. Multiple Philly schools have cancer-causing asbestos. The city JUST started dealing with it. https://thenotebook.org/articles/2020/06/10/educators-protest-asbestos-over-policing-in-philly-schools/

Some teachers have gotten mesothelioma from the exposure. Kids breathe this air. And guess what? The city did nothing for years.

Children of color/children in low income areas are more likely to live in a polluted area. Their schools are likely to be underfunded. https://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Teaching%20Intersectionality%20and%20Environmental%20Justice%20in%20Our%20Classrooms%20FINAL.pdf

Schools absolutely play a role is dismantling these systems, but they can’t solve them all alone and it won’t happen during a pandemic. And opening schools will put BIPOC families in danger. https://www.mhanational.org/bipoc-communities-and-covid-19

Back to the WaPo article. Most districts I know went above and beyond to provide food to students while buildings were closed. One of my colleagues distributed food every Friday in her hometown because the district partnered with the local food bank.

But if kids can’t access food when buildings are closed we have a societal problem, not a school problem.

If buildings do reopen, they’re going to be sedentary. Kids will be sitting, isolated, in one place for most of the day. Our schools aren’t equipped with outdoor classrooms or Peloton bikes for kids. What exercise is happening when we reopen following CDC guidelines?

Yup. And this is true when there isn’t a pandemic, too.

COVID-19 is highlighting the massive labor inequities women (especially women of color) face every day. If you didn’t care about it before I have a hard time believing your sudden attention has to do with anything other than convenience. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2018/05/18/450972/unequal-division-labor/

Yes, because when I think of schools I always think of how similar they are to hospitals. @NewJerseyDOE and @GovMurphy aren’t even requiring masks if schools reopen. They are recommending them. Any masks we do have will be cloth/disposable. Most teachers are buying their own.

Many teachers are stocking up on PPE for themselves and their students. We don’t expect to get n95s or face shields because schools are facing massive budget cuts. Most teachers already purchase their own supplies. But sure, let’s compare schools to hospitals.

If you figure out how to make sure this happens please let me know. Teachers have been begging for this for years.

Mask breaks? Where? When? How do teachers and staff, the ones most vulnerable to COVID-19, protect themselves during mask breaks (or lunch, for that matter)?

Excuse me while I show you my actual reaction when I got to this point.

How? With what money? “A federal watchdog estimates that 41 percent of school districts need to update or replace heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in at least half their schools...” to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. https://mobile.edweek.org/index.jsp?intc=mob-topnav

School starts in the next 2-6 weeks across the country. I’m not sure that this can be adequately dealt with even if schools receive the money to do so.

Again with the hospitals. Healthcare workers are incredible, but they work in buildings designed to protect public health. Schools are not built that way. It’s literally impossible to physically distance in many classrooms.

And this. My risk tolerance for teacher deaths is absolutely zero. Teachers are not healthcare workers. Teachers don’t work in hospitals. We didn’t take a Hippocratic oath.

The author of this piece is an assistant professor of the Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. They will be holding classes online this fall

In the words of @ShawnaCoppola, if you don’t work in public school building please stop telling teachers that schools should reopen and they should assume the risk of losing their life to COVID on top of taking a bullet in the event of an active shooter. https://twitter.com/shawnacoppola/status/1283009599172304897