We were in front of the mega-complex that houses Human Resources, the Superintendent and Board's offices, two schools, the testing warehouse and the offices for international student services. It looks like a mall, and it was completely empty, as the majority of people that rarely interface with students anyway were enjoying their break and would not be sent back into schools face-to-face at any time. Actually, many of them left early for the break, without even bothering to process months old paperwork that would allow vulnerable staff to stay virtual even during the upcoming, face-to-face return. It was appalling.
It felt odd driving to the complex way out by the perimeter and parking my car in the lot of the district that employs me, pulling my sign out from the back seat and walking up front to protest it. But, I wasn't going to park in the Hardee's parking lot, and I feel like I should own them as much as they own me. I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for tow trucks to pull up or some clandestine guard to close all the gates and lock our cars inside. I found a place on the highway, spaced myself at least ten feet on either side from the others and held up my sign.
Eighteen wheelers blew their massive horns and held up fists in solidarity. Pick-up trucks full of workmen honked and waived. The MARTA bus drivers blinked their lights and raised fists. All of the people that I thought would think, shit, I'm back at work, you should be too, showed overwhelming support. My eyes kept tearing up, which I mentally blamed on the wind.
I know there are a lot of people that want their kids back in school, face-to-face. Right now, Georgia is facing record high numbers of COVID transmission. Both the county where I live and the county where I work are in the highest level of spread that the charts record. Statewide hospitals are 89% full and in the metro-Atlanta area, most are more than 92% full. My district adopted a new metric that would evaluate when we should go back to face-to-face school, discounting a previous metric that had been surpassed five times over by active cases. By their own internal memo, we were over the percentage-positive amount that would indicate full virtual learning according to the new metric on the day they told us we had to come back into the building, five days a week, on January 4th. They have since buried the initial memo, leaving no guidelines at all. Cases will be spiking in the next few weeks because of holiday travel. The bars and restaurants were not closed and the schools opened, as Fauci recommended. The schools are simply being opened. Our schools have not been outfitted with plexiglass partitions or updated ventilation systems. The mitigation remedies are: everyone wears masks (until some kid pulls his off), tell them to wash their hands, clean your classroom a lot with the supplies we claim we'll provide, make the kids social distance (right) and some one will do contact tracing, but we won't tell you if there is an outbreak in the school. The majority of my students have told me that their parents do not intend to send them back face-to-face, because they don't think it is safe. In the beginning, no student would even be face-to-face more than two days a week and virtual the rest of the week. Teachers will be faced with the mess of teaching in-person and virtually at the same time. There is a vaccine that is currently circulating through the populace. Soon, the ordinary flu season will be over. Why now? Why can't we wait eight more weeks? How much more will really be lost?
In the last week, two more people I know have come down with COVID. A friend's mother died of it a couple of weeks ago. A co-worker of my niece and his girlfriend both got it, leaving my niece running around during the "holiday season" getting tested. One of the cooks that works directly with Alec got it a couple of weeks ago, leaving Alec scrambling.
I made a new sign. It's bigger than the first one. I will be out there again tomorrow, standing on the highway in the wind, hoping someone is paying attention.
*Title from "You Don't Love Me Yet", Roky Erickson
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