One chance to get it right on school reopenings

The Alaska Black Caucus Allies for Change urge the Anchorage School Board and ASD Superintendent Deena Bishop to call off the perfunctory and rushed return to school on Jan. 19, and to instead work with medical authorities to craft a realistic plan that aligns in-person learning with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Anchorage and Alaska are currently at the highest alert level of the pandemic. Returning to classrooms now will needlessly imperil teachers at little and inequitable gain for students while incurring grave risk for students, their families and our entire community.

Vaccines are being administered in Alaska right now. The benefit of returning to school for the relatively brief period of time before teachers can receive vaccinations renders a return now unconscionable. Vaccines approved for use in the United States are not approved for children under 16, although clinical trials may establish their safety for young children before long. Until then, it is morally wrong to ask unprotected teachers to forgo distance learning and return to dangerous classrooms. One teacher in Anchorage who recently had COVID-19 experienced a harrowing brain inflammation caused by the disease. Such complications are not reportable to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Alaska State Epidemiologist Joseph McLaughlin told the Anchorage Daily News, “So we do not know how many neurological complications have occurred in Alaska.” No wonder 80% of teachers surveyed in November responded that they were afraid of returning to schools.

The ASD plan will also put children in danger. It is a myth that children are unaffected by COVID-19, and little is known about the disease’s long-term effects on health. MIS-C — Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children — is real, serious and potentially deadly, and it can and has impacted children everywhere, even here in Alaska. Additionally, research indicates that the new B117 strain of COVID-19, which spreads 70% more easily, may infect children just as easily as it infects adults. As this strain has already shown up in the U.S., we now have to contend with new information and projections about the possible effects on the spread of COVID-19 that reopening schools might have. We can not rely on previous studies on school reopenings elsewhere that did not consider the variant strain.

We all talk about health when we weigh putting children and teachers back together in school, but few mention the stomach-turning statistics on which groups are most affected and suffer the most debilitating illnesses and deaths from COVID-19. A national COVID-19 tracking project using up-to-date CDC data shows that Alaska Natives and Indigenous people make up only 15% of the population in Alaska but 38% of COVID-19 deaths in our state. White people make up 65% of the population in Alaska, but have suffered barely 38% of the deaths. That should sound an alarm for Alaskans of good will and fellow feeling. COVID-19 exacts a special toll on communities of color. We know we are taking a risk by returning to in-person learning, a risk far more dangerous and ill-considered for non-white people in our community.

Some of the inequities visited upon our community by COVID-19 reflect inequities beyond race. Families will face tough choices: risk it or not? Those with at-home resources of childcare, good WiFi, and adequate technology will be able to keep their kids at home for learning, and avoid the risk. Economically disadvantaged families in which all caregivers or sole parents work outside the home will be effectively forced to take the risk. Virtual learning, too, could decline in quality if classes are split between in-person and virtual learning, with teachers dividing their time and attention between students in front of them and others but distantly present.

While there remains the very real issue of children facing dangerous situations at home, we can’t agree that it’s safe for those students to return to school, only to face the risk of serious illness or death from COVID. Concerns about domestic violence are serious, and are often cited as a primary reason to return to in-person learning. We believe that this matter deserves special and separate attention from the school board and the district. It is the school board and the district’s job to tackle challenges like this in a way that doesn’t risk generating more harm than good, and they should address this matter immediately, and apart from mandating a return-to-school for all students.

The ASD recognizes in its own system that a core indicator — the number of cases per 100,000 over the past 14 days — places us in the highest-risk category for transmission in schools. So, why are we going back to school? Let’s pause for a moment, and ask ourselves if we really just can’t wait for a few more months for better COVID-19 statistics and for the vaccine. We only have one chance to get this right.

The Alaska Black Caucus Allies For Change implore everyone in Anchorage who cares about our community’s safety, and about racial and social equity, to please contact the mayor’s office and the superintendent’s office asking them respectfully to cancel the reopening of schools.

Celeste Hodge Growden, Danyelle Kimp, Kir Moore, Richard Emanuel, Regan Brooks and Rozlyn Wyche are members of the Alaska Black Caucus Allies for Change.

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