Covid Support Thread
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Yeah, I wouldn’t send my kids to live in a college dorm or Greek housing this year. I think… even five months into this people still don’t really get it yet. We haven’t had to yet really contend with covid while schools and college are open and don’t know how their openings will affect transmission. We can assume case counts will go up. Maybe by a whole lot. Teachers will likely die. Maybe a lot of them. And people are still debating whether or not they should have to wear masks in public. Oy vey.
It’s an engineering and architecture school so some amount of in person learning is necessary. I’m sure enrollment will be a mix of down and deferred, but many of the students do not have the privilege of being ‘sent’.. they are first generation college students or low income and on scholarship or older and pursuing these degrees. We have had women (less than 10) living in the house all summer as well as this is their permanent residence. I’m not arguing that this isn’t serious, it definitely is, just giving some insight into what some of the circumstances are.
This isn’t college or school, but my office is opening back up on the 10th at 25% occupancy. We’re the first U.S. office in my global company with an approved plan. It’s voluntary. They’re aren’t forcing anyone to go in, but some want to. Originally I thought I’d go in maybe once a week. Anyway, since I lead a department, I’m privy to the plan and… I NO LONGER WISH TO GO IN AT ALL. Basically, the building cleans common area/things thoroughly at night and during the day but each person is responsible while at work. Our shared spaces were a disaster before Covid. Like people left dishes in the sink. If they missed a trash can, they didn’t bother to pick up. That kind of thing. I don’t trust anyone to clean up in the kitchen or conference room. Fuck that.
I told my team members to stay home too. It’s not worth it.
In other new, my hometown is a rising hotspot in IL. It’s right on the MO/IL border and also close to IA. The Governor was there yesterday basically begging people to wear masks. I will not be seeing the fam for a very long time now. I know my mom is good. But I’m like 99% my dad is not. It’s unfortunate.
If i were a teacher I’d be within a few years of retirement and I’d be at every single doctor making sure I had documentation to back up that I could not be in the classroom and fell under reasonable accommodation under ADA. Every teacher with pre-existing conditions or close to retirement should be getting to their doctors and getting ADA paperwork together. Newer teachers are going to quit. A lot of teachers are going to quit. They already have to put up with enough and now they’re going to be held responsible for the literal lives of their co-workers, students, parents and other children of students, bus drivers, school staff and anyone else people can put on their shoulders.
If Betsy DeVos couldn’t have picked a better way to destroy the public education system.
@MG, my company is big into ACE. We kept high school interns this year, virtually. In fact, we were the first company that said they wanted to continue this summer and a total of 9 out of the usual 40+ agreed to do the program. I heard the summer project is going really well with the interns. A lot better than expected, which is good to hear.
We don’t even bother to go to our office except for a weekly run in and grab the mail trip. The building has been shut down multiple times for cleaning due to confirmed covid cases in the building – sometimes on our floor and others just in the common areas. I don’t imagine schools will be any different. This fall/winter is going to be a disaster.
I think part of my tooth just fell off. Oh well. Gonna be a while until the dentist is a thing.
@ktfran My company is HQ’ed in Springfield and on our Monday morning department call yesterday, my boss mentioned that most establishments near him aren’t following the rules and they’re finally starting to crack down on noncompliance. My coworkers there, some of whom live in small towns between there and STL, keep telling us how different the atmosphere and attitude is in southern IL. Our Springfield office is reopened at 50% capacity, but only for employees who want to be there and feel they cannot work efficiently from home. The Chicago office is still closed, though I think our office manager does go in every week, but I do think I’d feel okay there. As long as I’m encouraged to work remote, I’ll continue to do so. (As an aside, my last company also had kinda unclean common areas and I found that frustrating even under normal circumstances. I was shocked when I started there by how gross people could be in shared spaces! I stopped bringing lunches that needed to be heated up because I couldn’t believe the mess in the microwaves.)
I finally went back to my gym for the first time yesterday, which was one of my favorite parts of my routine. My gym was always small group classes only, and they’re now holding outdoor classes in an open field, weather permitting, with a max of six people per class. It was good to go back and I hope to make a routine of it as long as it continues to feel safe.
Our school district still hasn’t decided whether to do a hybrid or full remote learning. Tick tock, people! Every other school system in our area, that I’m aware of, has announced they’ll be doing full remote learning in the fall. Safety aside, the logistics and cost of doing anything else would be a nightmare. If we have a choice, we’ll be keeping our kid at home.
My major worries about distance learning are: 1) the requirements from the district for second-graders will be ridiculous for us to keep up with. Some of the sample schedules I’ve seen are just ridiculous. My daughter HATED Zoom in the spring and wouldn’t participate most of the time, and has refused to even look at the summer lessons that have been offered. She will do worksheets and whatnot with us, and already reads at a third-grade level, but if there are synchronous learning requirements I just don’t see how we’re going to manage it. My husband and I both have meetings in the mornings too, and I am on-site for work 1 day per week. I’m not willing to have a screaming fight with my 7-year-old every morning about Zoom school. And 2) the social aspect -which if we’re honest would also be an issue for any in-person schooling right now. If we’re distance learning, I’m hoping to organize a sort of “recess pod” with neighbors to at least allow our small group of kids to play together outside regularly. That would be a risk, but we’ve been so isolated it’s been really rough on all our mental health. My daughter is actually attending a camp this week and next week, and even though she’s having a great time so far, has worked herself up into anxiety-induced stomach aches about it. I am also nervous about it! Covid is not quite as widespread here -yet- but I have been watching the numbers every day and fretting. I HATE HATE HATE that we are all living in this situation, it’s BULLSHIT and it didn’t have to be this way!
My intern was cancelled for the summer 🙁 which, would have needed to be in person and that just wouldn’t have been fair to her or the rest of the team that needed to go in.
I’m trying to think of some good that comes from this..maybe that higher education prices go down? Probably not though. Will employers look unfavorably at this batch of graduates since their experience will be limited or different?
I’m Hoping for further good news on round three of this vaccine trial and more info on targeted treatments.
My alma mater raised tuition 1.9% for the year and is also charging a $50 per term COVID fee. They have billions in endowment and I’m just like, maybe now would’ve been an okay time to take a hit…?
ouch, well that’s going to send a bunch of kids to community colleges to take credits in the meantime..
