WOODBRIDGE, Va. — As the President’s administration continues to push for a full reopening of schools in the fall, one local teacher is speaking out in opposition.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he disagreed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its guidelines to reopen schools in the fall.
Trump critiqued the agency’s guidelines as “very tough” and “expensive."
“While they want them open, they are asking schools to do impractical things,” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s comments came less than a day after Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told governors on a conference call that school must reopen in the fall as well.
"Ultimately, it's not a matter of if schools need to open, it's a matter of how,” DeVos said in audio obtained by the Associated Press. “School must reopen, they must be fully operational. And how that happens is best left to education and community leaders.”
But, Catherine Smart, a Prince William County high school teacher, said she believes her school district should embrace a virtual learning environment in the fall as much it possibly can.
Smart said her entire family recently came down with coronavirus, and said it has shaped how she feels about the reopening process.
“What they went through was the worst thing that I've ever experienced,” she said. “I'm an Army veteran. I’ve lived through some tough things, but this was really the roughest month of my life.”
Smart wrote the Prince William County School Board Tuesday about what approach she felt the school district should consider when reopening in the fall.
The letter, which was posted online, has been shared thousands of times on social media.
Smart said she, both of her sons, and her husband are just now getting over the virus after contracting it one month ago.
“My 17-year-old experienced violent vomiting that was so harsh, his back seized up,” Smart wrote. “He was disoriented and couldn’t stand on his own. My husband and I had debilitating headaches, muscle aches and chills, hallucinations, dizziness, and extreme fatigue.”
Smart added her family had to make four trips to the emergency room.
“And yet, our cases are considered mild,” she wrote. “The potential risks to others who might not be as luck is unconscionable.”
Smart fears screening measures, like taking students’ temperatures, will not be enough to detect the coronavirus before it enters classrooms. She said students and staff could be put at risk.
Smart said she does not understand why some people across the country have pushed so hard to have school buildings fully reopen.
“As an American, as a Virginian and as a member of Prince William County, I feel like It doesn't speak truth to what our circumstances are and what our educators are really up against," she said.
The Prince William County School Board expects to come to a consensus during a virtual meeting Wednesday night to discuss potential reopening plans for the fall. The board hopes to hold a final vote on what plan it will adopt July 15.
