School Will Never Be The Same After Covid-19
My day job, as a local newspaper reporter, is back. We’ve adjusted to online only and rather than 3 plus stories per week, I write two. This week, I reported on several zoom meetings that took place, and the culmination, stole my breath a bit.
One zoom was a community forum. This forum is often host to political candidates, elected officials, and civically minded residents. For me, it has been really educational on how decisions are made. It is run by two men; a former judge and a former state rep. The men are from opposite political parties. It is never a one sided show. Conservatives and Liberals come together and learn. In times like these it is a very refreshing interaction. This week, one of the hosts realized there was an expert on disease control. He asked her to speak on what she knew. Though she is no longer in that position, she was formerly the head of disease control for a local hospital. She happened to work in that position during the AIDS epidemic. She described life in a hospital before AIDS.
Before AIDS we did not wear gloves. AIDs made us look at staff safety, like PPE and sharps containers.
My jaw dropped. I was alive during AIDS. But I do not remember doctors offices or hospitals before AIDS hit. My mind could not imagine a time with staff without gloves or sharps containers. I knew it happened. I knew what it was. But I did not realize the changes it caused. Were we ever that naive ? Did we ever feel that safe in hospital? I, for one, am thankful for the change it caused. I want my doctor wearing gloves. I want sharps in a container, not in the trash bin. Not just because of AIDS, but everything else too.
The other zoom was with the superintendent of schools. He was discussing plans and options for school in the fall.
Highly unlikely that we will be back in school in September for a normal school year.
He went on to describe the facts, recommendations, and safety issues being addressed. A normal classroom houses 20–30 students. Based on size and CDC recommendations, it should only have 6–8 bodies in it at one time. School busses can hold 70 students. I shivered remembering body heat and being crammed into seats next to friends. The thought of it combined with Covid19 or a flu outbreak seems so irresponsible. Covid19 has changed how we feel, safety wise, human proximity and how we raise and educate our children.
This is changing right before our eyes. It is the part that will get a paragraph in history books. Before covid19, we crammed hundreds of kids into one room for a pep rally. My daughter is heading into kindergarten. She will not attend school the way I did. Her education will be different because of Covid19. She will not be able to imagine life before. It will seem like doctors without gloves. It will seem like walking on a plane and how easy it was before 911.
Someday I will be explaining to her how things used to be. Her school has numbers outside her classroom windows to help police in a shooter emergency. I cannot pull the door open and walk in. I have to buzz in with my face on a camera. Metal lines the glass windows at the door so nobody can shoot their way into the school. These are just normal parts of her everyday life. They were not a part of mine. She will have lockdown and shooter drills. My mom had nuke drills, which actually sound laughable, without a fallout shelter to run to.
I am noticing a shift in my mindset. Old pictures of big groups cause me alarm. I never considered the spread of disease prior to Covid19. I mean, I did, when talking about sex. But now proximity makes me nervous. My feeling is a bit of horror. I was watching porn for another article and a lot of it boasted, bareback, which made me feel nauseated. My brain screamed, “NO NO, that’s not safe!”
This weekend I came to understand that we are in the midst of a collective mindset shift. It’s happening right in front of us and we aren’t even aware of the impact. We won’t be until we tell the stories of what life used to be like. The little ones of today will marvel at the idea that kids went to school and spread flu like wildfire. They will wonder why it took us so long to address disease control in schools. I will shrug and say, “ Until Covid19, we didn’t really feel like we had to.” My daughter will wonder how naive and innocent we were. Covid19 has caused us to wake up about disease transmission, even though every flu season we face it.