
Dr. Mike Robinson: How can schools practice social distancing when kids return to school?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Schools cannot support social distancing- it takes money and resource and schools are already dealing with limited resources across the board.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Is Schooling with social distancing even possible?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Dr. Robinson how are we going to practice social distancing in the elementary grades, especially when standing in line to walk into a school is problematic. Children still fight when someone (bust) in front of them because they want their spot at being first. Some children still want to go out on the playground and hold hands while playing. When children are let back into the school they believe that it is safe. For some, school is the one place that protects them and is a haven for all the challenges they face at home.
I have not even talked about kindergarten, the children that wipe their noses with their hands and touch the first available surface. Teachers spend 1/3 of their day giving hugs and consoling students who have been touched by someone. Do you think a little kid is going to spend the entire time not touching someone or coming within 6-13 feet of the next person? How do we account for using the bathroom? Do we stand outside the restroom all day and make sure only one person uses it at a time? After children eat breakfast in the morning the restroom is flooded with children 45 minutes to one hour. (This is breakfast in the classroom).
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are your thoughts on the use of staggered start times; alternate weeks of attendance, remote learning by school systems until further notice?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Staggered start times or alternate weeks of attending will not work. Who is going to watch the children of the classroom teachers who are instructing students? Teachers have children as well and day care centers are already limited in their ability and have to accept fewer students. So are school districts going to penalize teachers with small children who need to be supervised simply because mommy or daddy is teaching but their children are not allowed to be in school because of its their alternate week, or staggered start time? Additionally, day care providers want you to pay even if you are not present because a time slot costs money.
Now we are placing undue costs on an already limited teacher workforce. Hmm, did we forget that we are involved in a shortage of teachers and bus drivers across the state and nationally? Where are all those extra bodies going to come to provide alternative work schedules? School districts need to PIVOT. We have an entire summer to create an online distance education program that meets the needs of all students and keeps them SAFE. We talk about human development theory so let’s use it. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where safety is more important than school. We need to educate where it's safe.
I saw one response that talked about special education not being appropriate, then make changes so that there is equity for all students. When school districts cannot PIVOT, it tells me that they have been doing the same kind of teaching and procedures for years not realizing that some of those things aren’t as important as you may think- change is good. We need to come up with different models of special education, social justice, and advocacy. Simply funneling students into a method or model that has worked for so many and not individualized is counterproductive but safe because it is what we know. Now we need to come up with solutions where we ask the child how they learn and how can I help you get better rather than pigeonholing them because it’s what we know how to do. WE must PIVOT.
Still, we have not talked about the single mother who does not care if it’s their child’s alternate week, they are sending Johnny to school anyway with 1 tablespoon of cough syrup and a temperature of over 102 because they have to work. Even if the nurse calls and says that this child is sick, parents do not come to pick the student up until the end of the day, where is this child going to stay while he or she is sick?
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are your thoughts about teachers wearing masks and other PPE?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Teachers change their scrounge in their hairs every 20 minutes while they are teaching. They adjust their ribbons, drink water and grab snacks, do you think they are going to keep their hands out of their face long enough to wear a PPE all day? I can only do it in my car for a moment, then I have to adjust my glasses. Teachers and students will have to come to school wearing a full chemical suit for this to work and who supplies it? We currently cannot even purchase Lysol, much less an effective mask for doctors and nurses.
Dr. Mike Robinson: This question comes from a parent- When schools are open, what signs would be visible that would suggest that social distancing is working?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: There are no visible signs that social distancing is working while at school. Theoretically, we are sending children back to school because we are worried that parents are tired of being home with students who undoubtedly cannot learn without their teacher hovering over them all day. Parents think that allowing their child who still has not managed to respect them and a teacher is going to be any different because a global pandemic says they have to. Are we talking about babysitting or education? How can our state superintendents ensure the safety of every child in the building with something that is unseen and has no smell? We cannot even detect it for many days after someone is affected by it. It only takes one person to walk into a school that is asymptomatic touching someone with an immune system that is weak and the entire school or cluster is closed. Remember they might touch a teacher whose husband works in a high school that drives a bus that picks up multiple students across many different levels and then your entire school system is shut down because we cannot trace that much iteration of students coming to school.
If we cannot solve the mystery of why parents send their children to school with ringworm, pinkeye, and lice, sicknesses that we can see, how do you think COVID-19 will be any different, an illness we cannot see? My principal has this quote “Children have not changed in a thousand years.” Well, neither have parents. Soon as the school district announces that we are open for business people are going to complain if it does not meet the general demand of the public. Stay online- Verizon, Comcast, and Cox should be providing free internet access for every family that has a school-aged child for free at the 300/300 and a device. It is a necessity, not a privilege. No school administrator wants to be the leader of a school that has to shut down and make the call to a parent because their child has died simply because we could not PIVOT until an antiviral medication or vaccine was found.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Can social distancing happen on a school bus?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: No, social distance cannot happen on a bus because we are already short of bus drivers. How many runs will they need to make to ensure that children get to school on time? Who is going to clean the bus between runs and ensure that children come to school on time? In my fifteen plus years of school, children stand up 1/8 of the way to school, get into fights, and shout out of the window. We would be wasting a lot of gas just to place 8 -12 students on a bus; It’s not cost-effective and as I said before there is a shortage of bus drivers.
Dr. Dwayne Ham’s Final Thoughts
Dr. Robinson- We need to PIVOT- Educators need to find creative ways to drive distance learning. Distance education and homeschooling were never intended to be every day, which is burning out teachers and students. Instead of teaching 29 students on zoom, alternate days for online education and let teachers do 4 days a week, using the fifth day to plan and collaborate while allowing students projects on one day. Allow bus drivers to be para educators in online education to support special education since they are driving. Custodians and cafeteria workers can support teaching online as teacher aides and small group instruction since we will not be in the building. This is where your workforce comes. Safety should not be a liability because parents want a babysitting service. Safety is required because while the students may be limited in the number of days they come to school, teachers have to be there every day and that places us in arms way.
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Schools cannot support social distancing- it takes money and resource and schools are already dealing with limited resources across the board.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Is Schooling with social distancing even possible?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Dr. Robinson how are we going to practice social distancing in the elementary grades, especially when standing in line to walk into a school is problematic. Children still fight when someone (bust) in front of them because they want their spot at being first. Some children still want to go out on the playground and hold hands while playing. When children are let back into the school they believe that it is safe. For some, school is the one place that protects them and is a haven for all the challenges they face at home.
I have not even talked about kindergarten, the children that wipe their noses with their hands and touch the first available surface. Teachers spend 1/3 of their day giving hugs and consoling students who have been touched by someone. Do you think a little kid is going to spend the entire time not touching someone or coming within 6-13 feet of the next person? How do we account for using the bathroom? Do we stand outside the restroom all day and make sure only one person uses it at a time? After children eat breakfast in the morning the restroom is flooded with children 45 minutes to one hour. (This is breakfast in the classroom).
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are your thoughts on the use of staggered start times; alternate weeks of attendance, remote learning by school systems until further notice?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Staggered start times or alternate weeks of attending will not work. Who is going to watch the children of the classroom teachers who are instructing students? Teachers have children as well and day care centers are already limited in their ability and have to accept fewer students. So are school districts going to penalize teachers with small children who need to be supervised simply because mommy or daddy is teaching but their children are not allowed to be in school because of its their alternate week, or staggered start time? Additionally, day care providers want you to pay even if you are not present because a time slot costs money.
Now we are placing undue costs on an already limited teacher workforce. Hmm, did we forget that we are involved in a shortage of teachers and bus drivers across the state and nationally? Where are all those extra bodies going to come to provide alternative work schedules? School districts need to PIVOT. We have an entire summer to create an online distance education program that meets the needs of all students and keeps them SAFE. We talk about human development theory so let’s use it. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where safety is more important than school. We need to educate where it's safe.
I saw one response that talked about special education not being appropriate, then make changes so that there is equity for all students. When school districts cannot PIVOT, it tells me that they have been doing the same kind of teaching and procedures for years not realizing that some of those things aren’t as important as you may think- change is good. We need to come up with different models of special education, social justice, and advocacy. Simply funneling students into a method or model that has worked for so many and not individualized is counterproductive but safe because it is what we know. Now we need to come up with solutions where we ask the child how they learn and how can I help you get better rather than pigeonholing them because it’s what we know how to do. WE must PIVOT.
Still, we have not talked about the single mother who does not care if it’s their child’s alternate week, they are sending Johnny to school anyway with 1 tablespoon of cough syrup and a temperature of over 102 because they have to work. Even if the nurse calls and says that this child is sick, parents do not come to pick the student up until the end of the day, where is this child going to stay while he or she is sick?
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are your thoughts about teachers wearing masks and other PPE?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: Teachers change their scrounge in their hairs every 20 minutes while they are teaching. They adjust their ribbons, drink water and grab snacks, do you think they are going to keep their hands out of their face long enough to wear a PPE all day? I can only do it in my car for a moment, then I have to adjust my glasses. Teachers and students will have to come to school wearing a full chemical suit for this to work and who supplies it? We currently cannot even purchase Lysol, much less an effective mask for doctors and nurses.
Dr. Mike Robinson: This question comes from a parent- When schools are open, what signs would be visible that would suggest that social distancing is working?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: There are no visible signs that social distancing is working while at school. Theoretically, we are sending children back to school because we are worried that parents are tired of being home with students who undoubtedly cannot learn without their teacher hovering over them all day. Parents think that allowing their child who still has not managed to respect them and a teacher is going to be any different because a global pandemic says they have to. Are we talking about babysitting or education? How can our state superintendents ensure the safety of every child in the building with something that is unseen and has no smell? We cannot even detect it for many days after someone is affected by it. It only takes one person to walk into a school that is asymptomatic touching someone with an immune system that is weak and the entire school or cluster is closed. Remember they might touch a teacher whose husband works in a high school that drives a bus that picks up multiple students across many different levels and then your entire school system is shut down because we cannot trace that much iteration of students coming to school.
If we cannot solve the mystery of why parents send their children to school with ringworm, pinkeye, and lice, sicknesses that we can see, how do you think COVID-19 will be any different, an illness we cannot see? My principal has this quote “Children have not changed in a thousand years.” Well, neither have parents. Soon as the school district announces that we are open for business people are going to complain if it does not meet the general demand of the public. Stay online- Verizon, Comcast, and Cox should be providing free internet access for every family that has a school-aged child for free at the 300/300 and a device. It is a necessity, not a privilege. No school administrator wants to be the leader of a school that has to shut down and make the call to a parent because their child has died simply because we could not PIVOT until an antiviral medication or vaccine was found.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Can social distancing happen on a school bus?
Dr. Dwayne Ham: No, social distance cannot happen on a bus because we are already short of bus drivers. How many runs will they need to make to ensure that children get to school on time? Who is going to clean the bus between runs and ensure that children come to school on time? In my fifteen plus years of school, children stand up 1/8 of the way to school, get into fights, and shout out of the window. We would be wasting a lot of gas just to place 8 -12 students on a bus; It’s not cost-effective and as I said before there is a shortage of bus drivers.
Dr. Dwayne Ham’s Final Thoughts
Dr. Robinson- We need to PIVOT- Educators need to find creative ways to drive distance learning. Distance education and homeschooling were never intended to be every day, which is burning out teachers and students. Instead of teaching 29 students on zoom, alternate days for online education and let teachers do 4 days a week, using the fifth day to plan and collaborate while allowing students projects on one day. Allow bus drivers to be para educators in online education to support special education since they are driving. Custodians and cafeteria workers can support teaching online as teacher aides and small group instruction since we will not be in the building. This is where your workforce comes. Safety should not be a liability because parents want a babysitting service. Safety is required because while the students may be limited in the number of days they come to school, teachers have to be there every day and that places us in arms way.