It’s March 12, 2020. There are 405 new cases of COVID-19 in the United States. A voice comes over the intercom, “Please take all belongings home with you at the end of the day.” 

With the slow rise of COVID-19 cases back in March 2020, the Olathe Public Schools decided to cancel school for the rest of the year and freeze grades. Now, almost a year later and more than 50,000 new cases everyday, the School Board has made a shocking and dangerous decision: put everyone back in school and hope for the best. 

Now we are all back, all in person, full-time. Although putting kids back in school seems like a very reasonable idea to some, those of us who actually pay attention to COVID-19 rates know the repercussions this could have. School and education are very important, but when there is a global pandemic and the School Board has the option to go online and choose not to, you make the choice to put thousands at risk. Not only the students and staff, but the family members of those people are now at risk. Learning online might not be ideal, but it’s what will keep people safe. 

What was the reasoning for this? To get back to a ‘normal’ school year? If the School Board wanted any chance next year of even a semi-normal fall semester next year, they would make the responsible decision and put everyone back online until the end of the school year. Is this ideal? No. Is it the safest option? Yes, yes it is. We are in a global pandemic. This is not going to be a normal school year, no matter how hard we try. So instead of putting more people at risk, the School Board should have made the decision to put us back online. 

Last year, when there were 405 cases of COVID-19 each day, the school made the decision to not put us back in school to keep us safe. Now, almost a year later, when we know what kind of repercussions COVID-19 has, the school board has decided that filling up the building is more important. In January of this year, we saw the most COVID-19 cases so far, and yet the school board still thinks the best idea is to put us back in school. 

With vaccines being administered and the push to vaccinate teachers, the number of COVID-19 cases has been steadily decreasing from the 100,000’s each day down to the 10,000’s each day. However, According to the American Academy of Pediatrics school kids won’t even get the vaccine until at least the 2021-2022 school year, and that would only be for older kids. Putting over 1,300 kids back into schools is not a smart idea if we actually want to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Not only is this a bad idea in theory, in practice it simply just does not work. The hallways are so crowded, you can barely stay 6 inches away from someone, let alone 6 feet. Lunch is a complete disaster. Although janitors and staff try to sanitize each table before a new block for lunch comes in, it’s almost nearly impossible, leaving many tables unsanitized simply because there is no time. Small classrooms are packed with 25-30 kids in each, making social distancing impossible. No matter what restrictions we have in place, nothing is going to help if we are still in school. The only restriction that would do anything is online learning. It is the only safe way and could ensure a safe school year for the 2021-2022 school year. 

This decision is not only dangerous, but careless, negligent, and just downright irresponsible. If we decided right now to put all students back online for the rest of the year, we could not only help stop the spread of COVID-19, but we could all come back full time next year when things can be much safer. The way to keep everyone and almost ensure we come back next year full time is to put us online now. It is our only safe option.