Localized School Petri Dish

Lately I have been daydreaming for long periods of time, lost in the doll drums of foggy memories: dining indoors enjoying lively music-drinking a beer from a frosty pint glass while hearing snippets of interesting conversations, enjoying the freedom of choosing a hobby to pursue (pool, a movie, bowling, and the list goes on), entering a four walled public spaces free from the cloth mask to enjoy a smile, smirk or some other form of non-verbal communication, watching my children prepare for the new school year as I scrape together money for new clothes and school supplies, or searching for a concert to attend. The short list is personal but serves as a powerful reminder of bygone days and new realities. 

Over the past few months, I frequently find myself watching school board meetings on YouTube engrossed in the vast pantheon of public opinion; none of which are based on fact. I ask myself, what is the point of research articles or data? Doctors are political pawns caught in a deadly game. Who are we to blame; our local, state, or federal governments or ourselves? Personal opinions that are stripped of any evidence, cherry picked from the annals of social media and tethered to personal dogma that is dependent on the community perception of the media or political view tip the scales of justice. What is the point of science if people are going to skim the surface for a sliver of a fact that satisfies their personal needs, feelings or beliefs? People are now willing to sacrifice children to COVID-19’s sharpened spikes. They are willing to impale strangers, our youth, suffocate the weak and poor, while acting indifferent to the suffering because they are entitled to their freedom of choice based on the fact the data supports them or so they believe. 

I watched our local school district (Clovis Unified School District, Clovis, CA) kneel to public opinion by offering two choices: (1) attend on site school or (2) attend online school with limited teacher interaction. There are thousands of variables we must consider which they intentionally chose to ignore. Oh, but the survey said that 70% of our constituents want on-site school instruction. Again, skewed data. Who are these people and what is the quantitative data pool by which this is based? Have we spoken to the 43,000 students, 6,400 full time and part time staff, and the substitute teachers who have to fill in the gaps when sickness will inevitably strike? You’re telling me that out of the approximately 50,000 persons who are involved with this educational construct that 70% want on-site instruction? I would think we all want to review the collective online survey that was sent via email and how many persons actually responded. I would venture the educated guess that the non-peer reviewed SurveyMonkey email is rife with errors and small sampling size. The all Caucasian panel of past Clovis Unified graduates has shown their true colors and are unable to see past their collective implicit and explicit biases. I don’t care what they say or want. I can’t listen to the lies vomited from a right- or left-wing agenda. If they cared about equality (Dr. Fogg), then consider those students who live in condensed housing, suffer from food insecurities, minimal income, loss of employment, multiple family and friends living in a small environment, and/or both parents work. What happens when these students arrive at school with symptoms and have nowhere to go while simultaneously infecting their peers, or they are infected by a student who has access to healthcare at which point they go home to infect their family who might or most likely have no health insurance. Right now, the majority of gathering places in California are closed due to the meteoric rise of infections and yet, they would knowingly create a school petri dish for what reason other than their own personal gain or save their precious seat on the dais. 

I observed each elected CUSD board member spew out disjointed speeches, failed policy, exhibit emotional reactions (crying, wavering voices, opinions), ask a dead man (Doc Buchanan) what he would say, and knowingly mislead the masses. They failed under the weight of their own entitlement and thus were willing to sign death warrants. I am sick, I am angry, I cannot believe our system is and has been this fragile. In the fallout and amongst the shattered pieces of a broken system, I find myself hoping that our Governor will make a decision for the well-being of all children and sidestep the political shitstorm that Clovis Unified has created by providing lackluster leadership. I still can’t believe Clovis Unified School District would place disadvantaged English Language Learners and their extended families, disabled, poor, minority-based communities, elderly, immune compromised, CHILDREN, and any person susceptible to this virus in its crosshairs. Choice. A shadow cast upon us all and used against us as a smokescreen because they reflect the last vestiges of power.