Classes With Cases: Despite rising COVID-19 case numbers, Shawnee Mission school’s are still in hybrid learning

When we started school online, I heard the same question asked by my classmates over and over again – how long will it be until we go back to school in person? But now, less than a month into hybrid learning, I find myself asking when we will go back online. 

With COVID-19 cases in Johnson County at record highs and hospitals almost at full capacity, it’s not about what’s best for our learning — it’s about what’s the safest. How are we still here; how is SMSD allowing us to stay in school, how are they okay with risking the health and safety of thousands of students?

During our extensive summer break, the school board announced a gating criteria where the number of Johnson County’s COVID-19 cases impacted what type of learning we were doing. With outlined red, yellow and green zones pertaining to the number of cases, the district would have the insight to consider how to proceed with our education. In plainer terms, if the county surpasses a certain number of cases, hybrid learning is halted and everyone’s back to full-on remote. 

The original criteria held the red zone at 250 cases per 100,000 people — and we now have 634 cases as of Nov. 11. Considering that several teachers and students have underlying conditions making them more at risk than others, it has become frustrating that the numbers are this high and the district has yet to come to the decision to bring students back online for safety. While I am sure our leaders in charge are doing the best they can to keep us safe, I struggle to think it’s enough. 

Almost every school around us has precautionary measures and plans if cases soar within their community. I hear over and over, “if the cases rise, we go back to virtual.” Yet here we are, cases still rising, and students still in school. Every time I hear a friend say they’ve been contacted because someone in their class has contracted COVID, the thought creeps into my mind that maybe our leaders and rule regulators are simply feeding us empty promises to reassure worried minds.  

The majority of students are not at a high-risk for COVID-19, however, the staff has more high-risk individuals, putting them at the greatest level of concern for contracting the virus and potentially suffering major consequences from it. With cases so high, we need to keep them in mind now more than ever. 

Maybe we simply just weren’t ready to be back in school. Maybe because parents and students were begging to be back in person the district felt pressured and rushed into the concept of going back to school. Maybe this is all true, and the solution is simple — the district should follow the previous gating criteria and see the county’s high level of cases as a definite sign to switch back to online. It’s a solution so simple, students can come up with it.