I appreciate that Camas parents are protesting to return their students to school. Teachers are doing their best, but I know as both a parent and an educator that remote learning is tedious, isolating and anxiety-producing for people on both sides of the screen. Furthermore, support staff have been laid off, furloughed or given reduced hours during remote learning. I know of no school employee who likes this current arrangement; we all want to resume in-person school.
That said, schools are petri dishes for germs and viruses, and community spread of disease is real. Some patients survive COVID-19 just fine, but the chance of death or disability is so strong we cannot risk setting up whole school communities to become ill. Anyone who has had COVID or knows people who have knows that medical professionals’ warnings about the disease are neither imaginary nor exaggerated.
Camas parents, please continue with your protests. Aim it at the right audience, though: Those who refuse to wear masks, stay home, or socially distance. The sooner we starve this virus, the sooner we all can resume in-person school as well as the other freedoms of movement we usually enjoy.