School has been on my mind since mid-March.

Photo by @heavyseas Twitter

I’m a 63-year-old married mother of two elementary school children. School has been on my mind since mid-March. So has my health. I have four or five pre-existing conditions, including age, autoimmune and inflammatory disease, that made COVID-19 potentially very dangerous for me, if not deadly.

After just a few months of lock-down, why open up schools in the middle of a raging pandemic? Returning our children to school in two months’ time is not acceptable to us. Observations that pre-school-aged children appear not to catch or transmit the disease as easily as adults is still anecdotal, not scientifically proven. We don’t know everything about COVID-19 yet. We’re still seeing strange and awful side effects of this virus in children and adults. How could I place such a burden on my children?  I felt from the beginning that states’ reopening plans were reckless and premature. Why did we open up bars and restaurants, making it that much harder to open schools safely?

The new Chicago Public Schools hybrid reopening proposal attempts to address an impossibly complicated issue, but I fear it also is premature and unsafe. Many older teachers will be in harm’s way, for one thing.

CPS is offering total at-home remote learning, which means families who wish to stay safe can do so while maintaining public school enrollment. Fortunately, I can be home all day to make this happen. But what about the folks who have to work and can’t afford help at home or whose kids need special attention? I feel for them. It is so painfully clear that our leaders have let families down once again. Canada is providing vital support for those who are struggling to make it through the pandemic.  We could level the playing field, but sadly the national will is not there.

By Susan Soric

Rev. Susan Soric is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She lives in the Budlong Woods/Lincoln Square neighborhood with her spouse Claire and their two children.