I have often heard it mentioned by medical authorities and government officials on the news that children do not easily get infected by Covid.  In fact, data released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC stated that the rate of hospitalization among children is low at 8.0 per 100,000 population compared to 164.5 per 100,000 for adults. 

Be it so, I got word yesterday that one of my students is currently sick with the disease.  I was shocked of course but I was not totally surprised since I work in an immigrant community that has suffered from one of the highest infection rates in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I hope and pray he recovers very quickly.

From my class alone, a student's mom confirmed with me that she got sick of it last May and that in my school last August, a volunteer tested positive for the virus prompting our school to close and ask everyone on site to leave immediately.  Those were just some of the cases I knew and heard of.  Fellow teachers have their stories to tell as well.

I am hoping no one else got sick in my student's family.  Many of my students do live in big households comprising of three generations.  I am likewise thankful that my school district has decided to let us have ZOOM classes instead of IN PERSON teaching. It has helped calm my fears and my family's a great deal too.

Meanwhile, there's a lot of talk at the federal level about reopening schools within the next 100 days.  Yet, there is a scarcity of vaccines in the country.  Should we just let teachers and school staff battle it out for themselves in school when they tell students to return?