OP-ED: Returning to School in the Fall Isn’t Safe Without a Vaccine

CHICAGO DEFENDER — For CPS employees like myself who work with Preschool children ages 3-5, how are we supposed to ensure they maintain 6 feet from us and one another? How are we supposed to explain a pod to them? Preschool children are explorers, exploring everything and everyone around them. It’s how they learn and develop critical thinking and social-emotional skills. Exactly how does one explore inside a pod? Before the pandemic hit handwashing was a skill most struggled with remembering, so how are we supposed to drive the dire importance of it to them now from inside of a pod? I can tell you now that ten preschoolers kept inside a pod will be utter chaos and a COVID-19 Petri dish filled with sneezes, dirty hands, and soiled masks. If the masks even stay on past the first 5 minutes of class.

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