President Donald Trump has downplayed the risk from COVID-19. Now, he and many governors say schools must open. The federal government might provide additional funding, but it may be restricted to schools that open for in-person instruction. Our nation desperately needs schools to open — safely. What confidence have leaders given teachers, students and parents that this can happen? I would argue very little.
The most recent argument for opening elementary schools has been that younger children are less vulnerable to the novel coronavirus. This ignores the fact that everyone would be at less risk if our leaders mandated masks and physical distancing and required a low infection rate as a condition for opening or remaining open.
Our schools have not recovered funding since the careless and misguided speculation that brought our economy to its knees in 2008. Asking schools now to pay for the technology, space and additional supplies to open safely is an unrealistic burden.
Opening schools under current conditions ignores the fact that some teachers or family members might be at higher risk. It ignores the fact that the cold and flu season begins in early November. National and state leaders have not done enough to mitigate the death, sickness and economic meltdown caused by this pandemic. They ask educators to open schools when they have failed to create conditions to open schools safely. They have put the nation at risk.
Their concern is not education but economics and their reelection. If our political leaders see in-school instruction as part of a healthy economy, then let them provide the conditions, the funding, the safety equipment and the policies requiring masks, physical distancing and low infection rates so that teachers and students can occupy classrooms safely.
These are necessary conditions for safe schools and a safe society. If people can’t abide by these conditions, then they should not complain about fully remote instruction this year or scapegoat teachers for conditions that were not of their making.
KERI GELENIAN
Fairlee
The writer is head of schools for the Rivendell Interstate School District.
This is in response to the Lebanon School District’s survey on reopening schools in the fall.
The abdication of leadership and common sense in this matter shown by Superintendent of Schools Joanne Roberts is appalling, and I wish the superintendent to know that I will hold her accountable for the first child in this school district who dies from contracting COVID-19.
Gov. Chris Sununu did not produce any guidance in this matter as it was simply adopted wholesale from a contractor in the employ of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, no doubt with an eye to disregarding life-safety and maximizing political talking points.
If the superintendent cannot take proper responsibility for these children then she needs to step down or the responsible parties — the School Board and the City Council — need to consider her immediate removal. There is absolutely no reason to risk the life of a single student, teacher or staff member so we can pretend we are not living through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
I have zero confidence that the superintendent can guarantee the lives of all involved, and am therefore forced to ask what possible motivation could she have for such blatant apathy. Personal politics? Accepting scientific data as fact? Having even the slightest concern for the lives of our children? What on earth could possess her to pretend any of this is normal? Or that 3 feet of social distancing (half the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guideline) is somehow safe? Simply parroting pseudoscience from on high is reason enough to doubt her credibility, and the fact that she had to articulate her rationale over a Zoom meeting (since an in-person meeting would be unsafe) tells us everything we need to know about the soundness of this proposal. Shame on her.
TRAVIS GRIFFIN
Lebanon
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said there’s no data to show that reopened schools would become dangerous. But there is. Israel reports that 47% of the country’s new cases, in a huge new wave of COVID-19 cases, were from the first two weeks of schools’ opening. And contrary to how the U.S. is handling this virus, Israel had almost stopped its spread.
There are about 80,000 students in Vermont schools. An American Academy of Pediatrics report from earlier this month put the COVID-19 mortality rate for children at 0%-0.2%. So, in a worst-case scenario, 0.2% of Vermont’s school-age children could die if schools reopen and they all get infected. That’s 160 kids.
Don’t reopen the schools. Allocate funds from the Department of Defense to the Department of Education to make it the best school year possible. Children won’t fall behind others if they’re learning online. Make sure all children are learning, then they’re all in the same boat. We’re all in the same boat.
ANNE PEYTON
South Strafford
White, black — what matter? We were taught that white was the light, black the dark, one good, the other to be feared. Value was added to color. In time we learned that other hues had associations also: blue and green signifying calm, red danger. A word denoting color could prime a panoply of thoughts.
Now we are caught up in a swirl of color-spectrum rhetoric: Black people, white race — as if different attitudes and aptitudes were indicated by the color of skin.
But color is an illusion. As the 17th century philosopher John Locke pointed out, color exists only in the mind, not in things themselves. The perception of color, 20th century scientists explain, occurs when light waves, striking an object, rebound, their length (frequency) being altered by the physical-chemical properties of the object they have struck. It is only when these refracted waves hit human eyes that they are “translated” into color.
The leaves on trees are not green, red or brown. The chemical content of the leaf changes with the season — and with it our perception of its color. A similar factor is at work in our skin. People in sun-soaked regions are protected by a shield of melanin, a chemical produced by the body that lessens the absorption of dangerous ultraviolet radiation. The illusion of black skin results from the translation the eye makes of the refracted light waves that rebound from the surface of melanin-rich bodies.
People in the northern hemisphere need less melanin, or their well-being would be compromised by a deficiency of Vitamin D, whose manufacture requires a certain degree of exposure to ultraviolet light. Anthropologists posit that shortly after humans moved from Africa into Europe, a chance mutation resulted in the loss of one individual’s ability to produce melanin, the resulting “white skin” giving his or her progeny a competitive advantage for survival in the new environment.
We are one species with colorless skin. Our bodies, thoughts and emotions are identical. Would that the social order were not built on an optical illusion.
CHRISTOPHER L. CHASE
Hanover
I’m compelled to offer a cordial rebuke and a history lesson to some of my fellow Valley News readers. Demanded or requested or coerced, publicly uttered loyalty pledges are profoundly un-American. They are hallmarks of totalitarian governments and every variety of cult. The ritualized mouthing of prescribed words as part of any governmental meeting or function is the very antithesis of the values for which we fought for our independence.
I myself have refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance since I was 15 years old (though I will stand out of courtesy), and I consider myself without modesty to be among the most necessary sorts of American patriots. I’m just allergic to orchestrated displays of political (or any other kind of) piety.
But I’m proud to support, defend and advance, as much as any ordinary citizen can, the foundational principles of our nation. And if you want an illustrative horror story of what happens when we don’t, please read up on the Supreme Court judgments regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Pledge of Allegiance.
America’s founders gave us a strong blueprint for a unique nation. Unfortunately, human nature can make us behave as though it’s just a wrapping for yesterday’s fish. Let’s try to overcome ourselves as much as ever we can.
SARAH CRYSL AKHTAR
Lebanon
I feel it’s my patriotic duty to country and planet to speak my truth, even though that truth will likely rub many readers the wrong way (read: I tend to shy away from sowing discord).
I grew up in a mixed-party Tunbridge household; my parents joked about canceling out each other’s votes at the polls — but they were damn sure to do it! Perhaps this partly explains my lack of allegiance to any given political party over the years; I tend to vote for integrity and honesty — candidates who seem trustworthy — which sometimes results in my going “both ways” on the same ballot (God forbid).
Actually, I tend to choose my leaders as I do my friends; I gravitate toward active learners who listen carefully and speak openly, people who believe in compromise and sharing and equal opportunity, and who have an appreciation for the hardships and sacrifices of those who walk in different shoes.
What I mean to say here is this: Every one of us needs to step up and get our country back on the rails and headed toward an American identity that reflects our nation’s true “liberty and justice for all” spirit. Our country is ill and it is incumbent upon each of us to make it well. My greatest wish at this moment is for each of us to do a thorough search for our own truths — outside of party politics — and then to speak, act and vote in ways that reflect our highest hopes for the future of our country and humankind.
HEIDI CHAPMAN
Chelsea
As an American citizen, I would like to see the rest of the American people with some common sense boot our current president and Republican Senate out office.
They keep telling the same lies over and over again. If you want a better America not controlled by money, boot President Donald Trump out of office. Install New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and I guarantee he will clean house the first day of all the money grabbers who support Trump.
It’s a crying shame that 140,000 Americans have died and all we hear from the Trump administration is lies. Wake up America, before we’re led down the path of death.
Look at your family — your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunts and uncles, the children, your friends. Don’t just glance at them. Hug them! They are the ones you should be defending against corruption and lies.
ROBERT POLLARD SR.
Enfield
During the record-breaking temperatures we’re experiencing, and as New Hampshire residents are working from home and running fans and air conditioning to combat the heat, more than 160 homes in Hanover are generating electricity through a wide range of solar arrays — some small, some large, some through fixed panels, some through trackers, some with both.
Three years ago, residents at Hanover’s Town Meeting voted to transition to 100% renewable energy. With a target of 2030, hundreds of residents have invested in solar panels and enjoy increased independence and energy security. We’re all connected to a regional power grid. Including small, widely distributed sources of energy can increase the resiliency of the electricity system.
While purchasing a solar array is a significant investment, it will generate power for decades to come. New Hampshire has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and since the majority of its electricity comes from nuclear power and natural gas, every solar array is a step in the right direction.
Solarize Hanover has announced the opportunity to subscribe to a community solar project located in our state. Even if you can’t install panels at your home, you can still invest in panels to generate clean electricity for your use and claim the 26% federal tax credit.
Sustainable Hanover encourages Hanover residents to participate. Go to hanovernh.org/solarize to learn more and request a site evaluation. In addition to the federal tax credit, New Hampshire offers a rebate of up to $1,000. In recognition of the trying economic times, for each site evaluation, Solarize Hanover will donate the cost of a meal to Listen’s community meals program. And should the evaluation result in a signed contract and installation, our installers will donate a portion of their proceeds to the solar fund for Hanover’s affordable senior housing.
Help beat the heat and move us all to 100% clean electricity. Whether you are considering fixed panels, a solar tracker or even community solar, Solarize Hanover can connect you with an installer to help you generate electricity for your home use.
MARJORIE ROGALSKI
Hanover
The writer is co-chair of the Sustainable Hanover Committee.
For 19 weeks I have phoned our senators in Washington, D.C. I want a letter stating our debt. Is it really almost $25 trillion? Why don’t I get an answer? Much of it is owed to Communist China.
ROGER SMALL
Claremont