|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Palo Alto and Gunn high school student-athletes will be able to again train in person outdoors in stable cohorts starting Jan. 19, the schools announced.
“While sport season schedules have not been finalized, the Paly and Gunn athletic department and staff feel it is important to offer our community the chance to do what they love with the people they care about. These workouts are not just about physical conditioning, but are part of a belief that having fun as a member of a caring community is critical to the well-being of our students,” Paly Athletic Director Nelson Gifford and Gunn Athletic Director Curt Johansen wrote in a joint announcement.
Athletic training with health and safety precautions is allowed to resume under updated California Department of Public Health guidelines released in December. The guidance is “aimed at giving communities guidelines on how to safely remain physically active while reducing transmission in their communities, especially at a time when cases are at an all-time high and ICU capacity is stretched near capacity,” the California Department of Public Health said.
Students will train outdoors, keeping 6 feet apart, and within stable cohorts. They should “refrain” from participating in more than one team over the same season. Face coverings should be worn at all times, “even in heavy exertion as tolerated,” the guidance states. Students and coaches also must wear masks when they’re not participating in the athletic activity, such as when standing on the sidelines.
When the high schools first resumed sports practices in the fall, the athletic directors also urged students to not socialize with each other before or after workouts.
Outdoor, low-contact sports that are permissible while Santa Clara County is in the most severe “purple” tier of COVID-19 include badminton, biking, cross country, track and field, golf, yoga, running and swimming. Outdoor high-contact sports like basketball and football can’t resume until the county is in the orange tier.
No indoor activity can take place at this time. When Santa Clara County moves into the red tier, however, high school gyms and weight rooms will be allowed to operate at 10% capacity, then 25% and 50% capacity in the orange and yellow tiers, respectively.
High school athletes aren’t allowed to compete in games yet. The state Department of Public Health has said competitions can’t resume before Jan. 25. Competitions “increase the probability of transmission due to mixing of households, traveling, and unavoidable physical contact,” the guidance states, adding that competitions between different teams have been associated with multiple outbreaks in California and across the country.
The district is still planning to offer new in-person activities to small groups of secondary school students starting Jan. 25, Superintendent Don Austin said on Tuesday, with “announcements coming very soon.”
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
Finally. Now open the schools to all grades NOW. There is no reason to deny our children the option of in person education 5 days a week. Except of course, the teacher’s union owned guvna and our cowardly teachers at pausd.
“ There is no reason to deny our children the option of in person education 5 days a week.”
Yes there is. There is a pandemic currently
raging. Did you not hear about it? I am thankful the teachers union is working to keep all staff, students, and families safe. Especially the families and commenters here who can’t comprehend or in this case, isn’t apparently aware of the dangers of this pandemic, and that there is currently a highly contagious airborne virus circulating with no cure until vaccines are distributed. I hope I got you caught up now. Schools are closed because of this so there IS a reason after all! So please stay safe! Also, you spelled “Governor” wrong. Finally, teachers don’t need to meet your expectation of bravery. They will continue to work online and continue getting paid until it’s safe to return to schools in person. I guess based on your cowardly comment this is your expectation:
https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/teacher-covid-death/
When people look back at the pandemic, they will probably note that one of the guiding principles of group activities was, “Sports first, arts last.”
I see football players (not the team) practicing informally at Paly pretty regularly. Just yesterday it was one of their kickers practicing field goals. He made the one I saw as I jogged past, so at least they’re able to keep some skills up.
I’ve said it before — We just need to convince our leadership to pretend that math, reading, and writing are “sports.” Even if that includes getting “coaches” and doing it outdoors.
Partial schedules, reduced instruction, and cheapened expectations just won’t do. When the rubber meets the road, talk is cheap. Actions show what folks care about.
Instead of coming in here and being bitter why not be happy the kids can go out and play and participate in what they love ?
No one will remember the pandemic as sports over arts ????????♂️
@ Shawn
Agree! Awesome for Paly and Gunn athletes! Anything back in person is fabulous! Starting anywhere in CA (which is Waaaaay behind the rest of the country already back to school and sports) is important.
@ The Voice of Palo Alto
Anyone who says it’s not safe to come back to school is just plain wrong, not informed on the facts, playing into fear based hysteria, and has NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. I’m so tired of people spewing completely false histronic unfounded statements. All over the world, all over the country, and thousands of private schools in CA have been back in person since at least last fall and some since last spring – with LOWER case rates than their surrounding community. That’s a FACT. Schools have been shown by hard data to be SAFER than surrounding communities. FACT. Just today, CDC confirms what we’ve know for six months, outbreaks are NOT driven by in person school. Does someone here know more than 15,000 scientists at the CDC? I think not:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/covid-19-outbreaks-aren-t-driven-by-in-person-classes-cdc-says
UCSF Doctors gave a presentation TODAY saying the following. I don’t have a link to the recording yet. Will post later. World renowed doctor at a world renown hospital. Dr Jeanne Noble, Director of COVID Emergency Response UCSF. DIRECT Quotes from Dr. Noble:
– “If we knew in March what we know now we would’ve NEVER closed schools as a public intervention”.
– “Is it safe to get kids back to school? Yes”
– “ What does the latest safety data show for returning kids to school? Marin only county open so far in Bay Area. 40k kids K-12 since Sept, 5k teachers, half a million student data “days”, and ONLY 7 cases of covid transmission during school days” “NC study is bigger. Almost 100k kids K-12 only 32 cases, open during when community prevalence was between 14-29 daily cases/100k population (beginning of our purple tier is 7 daily new cases/100k population) so they opened with cases that were double/triple ours.”
– “I have been taking care of covid patients since March. My colleagues and I. And we have not had a single case. We know that masks and distancing work.”
– “Do we need to put things [in schools] on hold until we have a vaccine? NO”
– “The tools we have now are ON PAR WITH VACCINES. We do NOT need to wait for vaccines. The other big problem waiting is that we have REAL numbers about the effects on adolescents (have data from Children’s Hospital in Oakland). Suicidal ideation was at 6% in March, and went up to 16% suicidal ideation now, and that’s the tip of the iceberg (anxious, depressed, eating disorders, we have this data, we know it’s happening, we know kids are suffering).
School closures are causing REAL harm every single day it’s not justified to wait.”
– “High school students AND teachers can be VERY VERY safe opening.”
– “It takes a transition to leave your house and interact with people who may have covid, but masks and hygiene protect you. This virus is more similar to viruses we already know and are comfortable with it so if you’re wearing a mask and washing hands it will keep you very safe when you interact with the world outside your house. “
– “It’s one of the tragedies of our early school closure. We pitted them against one another in a very political way. But high schools are VERY LOW RISK. And that risk does NOT justify this phased approach.”
– “7 Things Parents Need to Know:
1. Children are NOT drivers of the coronavirus
2. Masking and social distancing = efficacy of vaccine
3. Data that we’ve collected in the US show that elementary middle and HIGH SCHOOLS can be operating safely, despite high covid prevalence in the community
4. Teachers are more likely to be infected by another teacher than by a student
5. Distance learning has negative effects and developmental growth and mental health that has been measured and shown across the nation
6. In person school supports physical activity and decreases obesity in children (I am seeing increased obesity and increased eating in society as a whole, and with students)
7. Coronaviruses does not easily spread from surfaces. Bathrooms and sports equipment is safe for students and teachers to use.”
If someone disagrees with this, take it up with the renown UCSF medical staff, not me, since these are DIRECT QUOTES FROM THE UCSF Doctors presentation TODAY to the Bay Area School Districts. Good luck, and goodnight.
I’m tired of the histrionics of commenters like you in return. Teachers are not Covid data points. You argue that schools don’t drive community spread, are safer than the surrounding communities, but conveniently don’t mention that even if the cases are lower in schools that COVID IS spreading within schools. It’s so typical to try to turn it around with baseless “so called facts” and data points that are convenient for the reopen schools debate, mentioning other countries with lower infection rates, how private schools are open and safe when they aren’t reporting ANY infection data, doctors saying it’s so safe, or families who want their way telling everyone it’s time to go back to normal. Let’s see these pandemic rules. Please do not travel. Please do not celebrate the holidays together outside of your immediate households. Don’t spend time with people outside of your household indoors. Please don’t meet up with friends. Please close all other indoor establishments. Stay at home orders. Regional lock downs. All of California in purple tier or blue tier because of unmitigated spread. But you, the so called wiser voice, think it’s somehow safe, for teachers to meet with say 12 students and all of their contacts by extension on a daily basis for 4 hours a day indoors, every day because why? Masking? Sure. If schools are this great bastion of safety, and Private schools have all of the COVID safety answers, then let’s use the safety model that these private schools are using so we can open up all of society and go back to normal. Only in our country would we try to normalize society by opening schools while we are in the midst of a raging pandemic with almost 300,000 new cases and 4000 deaths happening nationally every day and have commenters like yourself advocating for reopening and going back to normal. What happens if the new more transmissible coronavirus variant becomes the dominant strain over the next few months? Will these UCSF doctors change their opinion? They should be ashamed of themselves for giving commenters like you their little ammunition. Remember when the pediatricians wrote that big demand as summer ended to open schools and then backtracked once the current Federal Administration got a hold of it and started using to promote their “open the schools” agenda? These UCSF doctors need to stay in their lane. They have no idea what it takes to run a classroom. They say masks and distancing work but that is under the assumption that children will follow the rules and keep masks on perfectly all day like patients do at their hospitals. Even making that comparison is ridiculous. Obviously things work much differently in their hospitals as opposed to a classroom. Also, masks do not offer 100% protection especially in circumstances of prolonged contact. Does the so called wiser voice remember when these same “experts” said toward the beginning of the pandemic that “children are immune to the coronavirus.” Then once the school doors opened up infections in children started increasing. Of course children can get and spread the coronavirus even if they aren’t drivers of the pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/31/us/coronavirus-cases-children.html
Oh look… here is an article about how another district had to switch to virtual learning due to increased infections. I would like the UCSF doctors to explain how this is happening?
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/jan/15/infections-forcing-schools-changes/?news-arkansas
Oh look here is an article about how teacher infections are increasing when schools are open. Active cases up 84% in public schools. Can the UCSF doctors also explain this?:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chalkbeat.org/platform/amp/2021/1/12/22227990/covid-teachers-school-reopening
Fortunately, the great and powerful teachers union will block any hysterics about reopening from commenters or parents like you until it is safe. Sorry. Teachers need the vaccines before any thought of reopening. Vaccines are being distributed with teachers in the “1B” category to get it. Please. Teachers get the flu and get sick every year working with children and they somehow aren’t going to get the more transmissible COVID from kids. Reopening schools right now would only be to please uninformed families and for economic purposes. Arguing for reopening is an assault on staff, student, and family safety. If children were the ones dying at an alarming rate schools would be closed without any of this debate. No one cares about the adults. Finally, California isn’t WAY behind other states reopening. We can’t reopen because it’s not safe. There is only one The Voice of Palo Alto and that is me. How embarrassing of you.
Right on cue the CDC just announced the variant will be the dominant strain by March. Looks like schools will be closed for the foreseeable future:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/health/covid-cdc-variant.amp.html
Make the necessary adjustments and stop complaining. Stay Safe Everyone!