Letters: COVID-19 in our school

To the editor:

Fact 1: Kids in Pre-K and elementary school seldom catch COVID-19 and are generally low shedders of the virus. High school students and adults can easily catch the virus and can spread it rapidly when contact with other people occurs, especially when no masks or social distancing is practiced.

Fact 2: If two or more people in any of the above age groups meet together without social distancing, no masks are worn and one person is spreading the virus, the chance of spreading the virus is very high. If both of the people are wearing a mask or are social distancing, the chance of spreading the virus is much lower.

Fact 3: Students that catch the virus or test positive are mandated by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) to isolate for at least 10 days. In addition, students or anyone this student has been in contact with for over 15 minutes without social distancing or a mask must quarantine for 14 days. Those are the rules we need to follow.

Exception: Because of the low chance of spreading if students are six feet apart or both students are wearing masks, only the infected student needs to be out of school 10 days. The rest of the students are able to stay in school and to learn as intended.

Example: One high school student tests positive. He is not wearing a mask and six other students were within six feet of him on the bus, in a classroom or hallways for at least 15 minutes. That student isolates at home for 10 days. His younger sister goes to elementary school and four days later she tests positive. With contact tracing, four other schoolmates are found to be exposed.

With no masks worn in the above example, 12 students are out of school: Two for 10 days and 10 for 14 days, causing major disruptions in the students’ and caretakers’ lives at home. With masks worn, only two students are out for 10 days. The other 10 are able to keep learning as intended with little disruptions in their lives.

Fact 4: We have over a 26 percent positivity rate in O’Brien County. As of Nov. 5, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn had the highest rate of students being quarantined or testing positive of any school in the county: Staff out with positive tests, 11; students out with positive tests, 7; students out from quarantine, 49; staff in quarantine due to exposure, unreported. Superintendent Patrick Carlin reports that 42 of the 49 are from out-of-school exposure, which indicates that we need to be wearing masks whenever we’re not social distancing – school or community.

This means that 56 students are now at home distance learning when at least 49 of them could be learning in their school and classes. Also, the 11 staff members (some of them teachers) are not there to teach the students or be part of their education.

I was privileged to attend the school board meeting on Nov. 5. I presented the above facts, and other information was presented with a plea for the board to reconsider their lack of a mask mandate for the H-M-S school system. Clearly the good things like social distancing we are doing are not enough to keep our students and teachers in school. We can do better.

With O’Brien County having one of the highest positivity rates for the state of Iowa two weeks running and record numbers of H-M-S students and teachers unable to learn or teach as was intended in our school system, we need to use the mask tool even if only for awhile. Our businesses and our communities outside of the school system are also being affected.

Unfortunately, I found that the majority of the board was not interested in making any changes. A motion to consider some form of mask wearing died for lack of a second. Meeting adjourned. I was very disappointed in the attitude toward the facts presented and the pleas from experts from IDPH, the O’Brien County Board of Public Health, CDC, our local doctors and other local people. There was pretty much disregard for any guidelines any of these people have presented as we have gained knowledge of how to slow this virus down in our schools.

My suggestion: I have talked to Mr. Carlin on how we can make our wishes known to the school and the board. You can go to the school website, find the names and email addresses of our board members, and send them your thoughts. Or, you can simply call the school office at (712) 928-3406 and let them know your thoughts. The office will relay those messages to the board. If you want, you can send him an email at [email protected]. If you want your message to get to the board members, he will forward it to them.

Students, teachers, parents and all people in the H-M-S Community School District –make your voice heard. We are all a part of this great facility and school system that was built and staffed to give our students the best education available, and that can only happen best when our students are in school. Be civil, be courteous and do it now!

Dr. Mark Schulz,

Hartley