I recall growing up in… this month, this fantastic but yet frightening month of August, was deadly to the student’s mind.. that nervousness over whether you are prepared for another school year. Did you finish your summer reading..? Did you get the books you needed…? Will your school clothes fit. How many more nights can your burn the midnight oil..? And finally, why did the summer go so damned fast.

Those normal worries this year seem to tame to the ‘new normal’ .. (sick of hearing that term yet?)

This week, when Governor Tom Wolf announced that he didn’t think fall sports should take place, outrage occurred just about immediately online. The PIAA protested in writing, and eventually decided to delay the start of high school football until September 11 to buy more time to discuss sports plans with the Governor.

But beyond the sports debate and whether Friday Night Lights would shine bright or go dim, parents and students are all wondering what the modern school looks like this fall.

Some districts around the nation have opted to go online only.. others are offering hybrids. Some even doing a few days in the building.. a few days at home. Either way, it has created emotional upheaval for children, and chaos for parents who are grappling with how they should deal with their own jobs.. their own livelihoods..

The CDC has published guidance on a national level that, in part, states this:

If someone within the school community (e.g., student, teacher, staff) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, assessing the level of risk is important to determine if, when, and for how long part or all of a school should be closed. K-12 administrators can also refer to CDC’s Interim Considerations for K-12 for School Administrators for SARS-CoV-2 Testing, which provides additional information about viral diagnostic testing. A single case of COVID-19 in a school would not likely warrant closing the entire school, especially if levels of community transmission are not high. The levels of community transmission described above and the extent of close contacts of the individual who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 should all be considered before closing.

And as some schools already open, cases of Covid-19 are appearing. As expected.

One f the largest school districts in the state is reporting that 100 of its students and staff are suspected of having tested positive for COVID-19, even before in-person classes have started. Those figures were provided to the district by the Georgia Department of Health. The school district has 113,000, so the 100 cases is a minuscule percentage.. But it’s equally a sign that most districts will have to grapple with a mini or mighty outbreak this autumn..

Another district in Georgia made news this week for suspending a student who posted a photo from inside the hallways!

But after SOCIAL MEDIA and the media reacted to her social media getting her suspended, the school reversed course!

From USA TODAY today:

A Georgia high school has dropped its five-day suspension for at least one student who posted a photo of crowded hallways showing students without face masks.
Hannah Watters, 15, tweeted Friday that she was no longer suspended from North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia. She told the Associated Press that her principal called her mother, apologized, and completely removed her punishment, leaving her surprised and “very grateful.”
The 30,000-student suburban Atlanta school district resumed classes Monday with 70% of students returning for in-person instruction five days a week. The county had let students decide between in-person or online classes, but the system’s online learning slots filled up.
Last week, multiple football players at North Paulding tested positive for the coronavirus.

In Pennsylvania, there are 500 public school districts in the state, consisting of 3,287 schools and 120 charter schools, according to the Pa. Department of Education. And of those 500 school districts.. And that means 500 plans for the upcoming school season..

Locally, different schools are offering parents competing plans for reopening… statewide, and district wide, everyone seems different.

Confusing?

Sure.

But what not, right?

SCHOOL YEARS OF PANDEMICS PAST

Long before the chances that online learning could at least potentially help (though we really know the truth in that after seeing it from March through June of this year), Montour County was one of the locations where schools were forced to close in 1918 during the Spanish flu..

The Danville MORNING NEWS lamented that pupils would lose some ground in their learning on October 8 of that year:

THE 1957-58 ASIAN FLU:

Schools around Pennsylvania were forced to closed as the outbreak took hold..

While media reports that year reported high numbers of students calling in sick, the 1950s feel good era declined to yield much information showcasing that the cause was the Asia flu..

Many news reports only indicated that “possible Asia flu” was the reason for closures..

But the Lebanon DAILY NEWS reported this on October 22, 1957:

x x x

THE 1968 HONG KONG FLU

Woodstock went on, as did the Nixon election, but colleges and schools were forced to be closed in December of that year as the Hong Kong Flu took hold across the United States.

According to the UPI that year, schools were closing a week earlier for Christmas vacation because of swine flu outbreaks around the nation–Pennsylvania was included with many closings in mid December..

Reading PA was included… the city closed schools due to excessive absenteeism..

Meanwhile, both President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey both were hit with the infection..

x x x

The 90s!

The decade about nothing!

With a pandemic!? Yes!

In May 1997 a three-year-old boy died of respiratory failure in a Hong Kong hospital. The cause was given as viral pneumonia of unknown etiology, but three months later the infection was identified as H5N1 avian influenza. While the virus had been detected in geese the previous year in China’s Guangdong province and chickens in Hong Kong in March and May 1997, this was the first evidence that H5N1 had jumped the species barrier to threaten humans. Avian flu went on to kill six people and sicken 18 in Hong Kong until a comprehensive cull of the city’s poultry in December that year.

But schools were not affected..

Despite the cull, H5N1 started surfacing around the globe. The virus has infected wild birds and domestic flocks in at least 55 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. As of 13 November 2006, there had been 258 confirmed cases of human infection killing 153 people.

x x x

THE SWINE FLU PANDEMIC OF 2009

Things in 2009 were different as the Swine Flu hit in 2009..

While the CDC was busy ordering caskets just in case a worst case scenario occurred from the virus that year (And it was a severe flu that I actually got when my family brought it back from Florida) the CDC still argued against closing schools that year!

From news reports in 2009:

Federal officials recommended today that schools should not close down during novel H1N1 influenza outbreaks, though they emphasized that the advice is a guideline and that decisions should be made based on local conditions.
The guidelines, composed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and released at a press briefing by the Department of Health and Human Services, build on revised guidance that the CDC issued in May. Early in the pandemic’s spring wave, schools were told to close for up to 2 weeks, but the CDC changed its advice shortly afterward to say that schools should focus on keeping sick students and staff out of school.
The new advice is being issued because “once you close a school, as we saw last spring, that creates a very significant ripple effect” on parents and businesses, Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said during the briefing.
However, the officials said, some schools will be justified in closing if they have a high rate of infection or large numbers of students with the underlying conditions that make the virus more dangerous. “We hope no schools will have to close, but realistically, some schools will close this fall,” Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.

But there were some front page headlines, such as this from September 4 2009 in the LANCASTER NEW ERA, where schools were concerned about potential outbreaks:

BUT…

Schools were stocking up only on tissues and masks.. and many were told not to close until 25% or more of the students body became infected with swine flu…

To show how little the Swine Flu rated in 2009, take this example: The Pottsville REPUBLICAN put a small snippet of a story about hand washing and singing happy birthday on page A12 of their August 17, 2009 newspaper: