China News Service, January 13. According to the US "World Journal" report, in San Francisco, with the surge in cases of infection with Omicron (Omicron), nearly 1,000 Chinese parents have jointly called for the joint school district to open online classes.
The recent surge in COVID-19 infections has thrown many schools in the Bay Area into chaos, with classrooms open due to challenges such as record-breaking daily infections, teachers’ collective sick leave, and rapid testing kits not being delivered to students in a timely manner. They are also doing their best.
Even in open school districts, some classes have been cut short due to teacher absences.
Asian-American parents are actively pushing for a return to remote learning out of concern about the risk of their children contracting the virus in physical classes.
Ms. Zhao, a parent, said that she hopes that the school district can provide online teaching at the same time as physical teaching, instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all policy to give parents more choices.
She said that the current school's policy is to attend classes at school. If you feel uneasy, according to the latest holiday regulations related to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, absences can be exempted, but this will affect the quality of children's courses to a certain extent.
There are also some Asian parents who worry that after the teacher asks for more than 30% of the sick leave, the school teaching will not be able to run.
Parents reported that all teachers have been mobilized to attend classes at present.
When these teachers are not enough, the class division method will be used, and students in a large class will be transferred to a small class, but this will undoubtedly affect the school's teaching order and teaching quality.
The teachers' union has not yet approved the request for parallel online courses and physical courses, mainly because they are worried that teachers' willingness to teach will not be guaranteed. This distribution cannot be balanced.
The pressure of teaching online and physical teaching at the same time is also unbearable for teachers.
Ms. Liu, the parent of a Cantonese-speaking Chinese student, said that at present, there is nothing to worry about about the current situation of their children's education. Taking online courses is worried that their children's classroom effects and mental health will be greatly affected. , and worried about the child being infected with the virus.
Ms. Zhao said, knowing that the school district is doing its best at present, each student will receive a rapid test kit before Friday (14th), and each kit contains two doses of testing equipment.
Although the test package was delayed by two weeks due to logistics transportation and the shutdown of the terminal, it can at least deal with the epidemic in the next two weeks.
San Francisco Unified School District also announced the criteria for ending isolation and returning to school: asymptomatic people who have been in close contact with people with new coronary pneumonia, if they test negative on or after the fifth day of isolation, the next day (the sixth day) It is possible to return to school, but must continue to wear masks in crowds for 10 days, especially in indoor environments, and monitor symptoms for 10 days.
If you develop symptoms at any time, get tested right away and stay home.
If you are unable to get tested or choose not to get tested, and you are asymptomatic, you can end your isolation after day 10; close contacts with symptoms of COVID-19 should be tested.
If the test is negative, you should stay at home for 14 days after the last close contact.
If you test positive, follow the instructions for testing positive.
The school district stipulates that if the situation changes, the isolation time may also change, which will be further notified.
Schools are now starting to accept test results from home test kits (nucleic acid test/PCR or rapid test) as a criterion for returning to school after isolation.
(Li Yi)