Coronavirus and the Schools

[LM K]

Dispute over Tucson-area school's COVID-19 policy leads to 3 arrests

A dispute over Sahuarita School District's COVID-19 quarantine policy resulted in three people being arrested Friday, Aug. 13, after they refused to leave campus.

A student and two adults — Damian Majuta, 48, and Jennifer Majuta, 46 — were arrested on trespassing charges after they and five other adults came on to the Walden Grove High School campus to speak with the principal about the student not being allowed to return to school property. It was reported that the student may have been exposed to a person who tested positive for the virus.

Sahuarita Unified School District has a policy that requires a person exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine.

The school's principal, Teresa Hill, met with the group and then advised them to leave, offering to meet again on a future date, Sahuarita police said. The group refused to leave. Police tried to mediate the situation but received no compliance from the group, which primarily stayed in the lobby of the Walden Grove office.

After advising the group to leave or face arrest for trespassing multiple times, police arrested Damian and Jennifer Majuta and the student after they refused to leave. The other adults in the group left the school after the three arrests.

The student's parents were present, but police would not say whether they were arrested. The student is also not being identified by the Sahuarita Police Department.

Those arrested were taken to the police department and later released by citation, police said.

[Volkonski]

Arizona

[raison de arizona]

This is my local district. They put a mask mandate on buses in defiance, but not in classrooms. Now they are putting quarantine mandates in place in defiance. This is a fairly conservative district, but there really isn't anything else they can do.

Stacey Lihn
@sllihn
DVUSD sent district-wide, Sunday email, regarding high transmission rates, parents sending sick kids to school, and significant disruption after 2 weeks of in person learning. New MC Health Dept quarantining mandates now in place, starting tomorrow.

Stacey Lihn
@sllihn
·
1h
“In our first two weeks back on campus, we have had more than 150 student and staff positive cases of COVID-19. This has resulted in over 2,000 DVUSD students already being identified as a close contact. We have also had parents knowingly send their children to school when sick.”

[Slim Cognito]

I know several people here will point out how ill-conceived, unconstitutional and in many other ways problematic this is, but I will say it anyway.

Arrest those fucking parents.

[AndyinPA]

Went out to my daughter's yesterday and about a mile from our place there's one of those new HUGE digital billboards. One of the signs that cycled was paid for by the parents (I assume) of a school district near here. It said something like Jefferson Parents, Tell the School Board Not to Take Away Our Freedom. No masks.




This is an upscale school district with a lot of well-educated parents.

[LM K]

Are those parents knowingly sending sick children to school trying to make a political point?

I wouldn't sent my child to school sick with anything. That's just mean. And during covid, sending a sick child to school could become neglect homicide.

[LM K]

I know several people here will point out how ill-conceived, unconstitutional and in many other ways problematic this is, but I will say it anyway.

Arrest those fucking parents.

Oh, I think this could be considered child abuse and child endangerment.

[raison de arizona]

[Volkonski]

[Slim Cognito]

So we're just going to let asymptomatic carriers infect the entire school?

Seems legit.

[Volkonski]

[raison de arizona]

Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that Phoenix Union's mask mandate can stand... For now.


The ruling:

► Show Spoiler

Other AZ school districts are taking note (and advantage) of the ruling.

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All Kyrene schools are at level 2, so masks will be required in all the district's schools.

[raison de arizona]

Are those parents knowingly sending sick children to school trying to make a political point?

[LM K]

Are those parents knowingly sending sick children to school trying to make a political point?

That's vile!

Time for legal consequences.

[Volkonski]

[raison de arizona]

x-posting

Florida to punish two school districts in first sanctions under DeSantis mask mandate restrictions

Florida education officials voted Tuesday that the Broward County and Alachua County school districts violated state law by requiring students without medical exemptions to wear masks.

The state’s Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor, said it would impose unspecified penalties on the districts, the first since Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatened to withhold money from districts that require face coverings, saying that parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school.

As debate over public health mandates simmers across the country, new polling shows that nearly 2 out of every 3 Americans say they support their state or local government requiring masks in all public places to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Pollsters also found that 69 percent of Americans were supportive of requiring teachers, students and administrators to wear masks.

WaPo live, that's it so far.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... e-updates/

[raison de arizona]

Meanwhile, Ducey opts for the carrot over the stick.

Ducey offering $163 million in funding to schools following state laws, allowing in-person classes
Arizona schools that follow state laws and that stay open for in-person instruction will be eligible to receive additional funding.

PHOENIX — Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will be offering up to $163 million in grant funding to all schools that follow state laws and stays open for in-person instruction, the administration announced Tuesday.

The multi-million dollar funding, made available through the federal American Rescue Plan, will be distributed through the Education Plus Up Grant program to district and charter schools following all state laws, such as the law that banned public schools from imposing mask or vaccine mandates on students and staff.

The law will go into effect on Sept. 29 after Ducey signed the state's budget back in June.

Eligible schools will also need to remain open for in-person instruction as of Aug. 27 and throughout the remainder of the school year to receive the funding.

https://www.12news.com/article/news/edu ... 6085b98c0c

Great plan, encourage schools to stay open even if they have an outbreak!

► Show Spoiler

[Slim Cognito]

Somebody should let guv know that won't cover a funeral.

Meanwhile, here in my school district... (one 'graph over, sorry)

https://www.winknews.com/2021/08/16/lee ... -19-cases/


A pediatrician says cases are only going to get worse if students don’t mask up or get vaccinated. A Lee County School Board member even suggested a vaccine mandate for staff.
...

Friday alone, The School District of Lee County saw 585 students and staff in quarantine. One school in the District had 14 teachers out.

...

“So that being said, what are we within our legal rights to do?” Patricca asked the school district attorney.

The attorney advised the school board is at liberty to make a mandate decision with the understanding there would be a likely response from Florida Department of Education and Gov. Ron DeSantis, since he signed an executive order banning mask mandates in schools.

“To me, it’s not about parental rights,” Board member Debbie Jordan said. “It’s about making sure everyone is safe.”

[Slim Cognito]

Cross posting cuz it should have been here anyway.

Saw this on a Brian Tyler Cohen tweet thread, his orig post saying that masks were being added to the district's dress code,

Untitled.jpg (69.31 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

so I went looking for a link to verify and found this from a local station

https://www.kltv.com/2021/08/18/paris-i ... th-issues/

which includes a link to the above statement.

[raison de arizona]

Districts not enforcing masks or mitigation are in an untenable position.

[raison de arizona]

Letter to MCBOS in AZ regarding concerns:

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Letter from Rep. Greg Stanton to Janet Yellen regarding Ducey's reckless misuse of education funds to force non-masking/no online:

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Screenwriter for Hunger Games welcomes AZ, TX, and FL to the latest edition of Panem:

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Sorrynotsorry, teachers should be mandatory vax:

► Show Spoiler

BeachBum
@jandsmcw
Prayers needed. My second grade grandchild was just sent home from school because the unvaccinated teacher has covid. The whole class is under quarantine because the teacher wouldn’t get vaccinated. This is Florida. Children don’t deserve this.

Quinnipiac University institutes steep fines and network/WiFi loss for nonvaxxed, up to $2,275 per semester plus loss of access to the Quinnipiac network and Wi-Fi without proof of vaccination. Quinnipiac enrolls ~10k students, they had 600 without proof of vax, 150 of whom provided it once requested. All staff and faculty have provided proof of vaccination.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

The plan is to use office staff with teaching certificates to go into classrooms to teach until more teachers can be hired (maybe years in the future? ).

I see a problem here. Not all teacher certificates are in the same subjects and grade level. Won't do much good to put an elementary level art teacher in front of a high school chemistry class. Considering the long term shortage of certified STEM teachers something like this will be a frequent issue.

[LM K]

Quinnipiac University institutes steep fines and network/WiFi loss for nonvaxxed, up to $2,275 per semester plus loss of access to the Quinnipiac network and Wi-Fi without proof of vaccination. Quinnipiac enrolls ~10k students, they had 600 without proof of vax, 150 of whom provided it once requested. All staff and faculty have provided proof of vaccination.

Other than banning students from campus, I cannot think of a better consequence for students whom remain unvaxed.

From the CNN article:

The university will fine students weekly for failing to provide their vaccine documentation, for a maximum of $2,275 for the semester, according to the email.

The fee will start at $100 a week for the first two weeks of the semester and will increase by $25 every two weeks for up to $200 a week, said the email.

Loss of wifi and network access will be much more painful for students than financial penalties. But financial penalties is a double punch for students living on campus.

From Quinnipiac University
Tech fees per year: $750
Books per year: $800
Student Fees: $1,840

The unvaxed fee would pay a full year of student fees and half of student's book costs.

And these students will still pay the tech fees.

Approximately 59% of students at Quinnipiac borrow one or more federal student loan.