Arizona schools should not be reopening anytime soon. They should stay online until stricter and safer guidelines are met by the districts. In-person schooling is simply too much of a risk for teachers, students, and parents, no matter the benefits it may bring.
As of now, the guidelines set out by Arizona split up the state into districts. It claims that schools are safe to reopen when the county they are located in reaches a benchmark in cases, but COVID-19 cannot be contained in a state, much less a county. It can and will cross borders from one county to another if schools reopen. Many teachers and board members have been fighting to make it so the benchmark to reopen is for all of Arizona, not just arbitrary county lines.
The guidelines provided by the state are extremely vague and many school district leaders have been speaking out about them. The superintendent of J.O. Combs School District, Dr. Gregory A. Wyman, claims that they have been asking for months for a clear plan to reopen the school but have received nothing from the state. This is a time where Arizona schools need guidance in reopening, as other schools in other states have been receiving.
An argument that people point to is that data from other countries shows reopening schools has minimal effect on cases. This would be true, if America handled the pandemic the same way that other countries did, but the data was taken from schools reopening in countries where COVID-19 was relatively eradicated. This is not the case in America, as it is still one of the biggest hotspots for the virus in the world.
Stories of schools reopening and being shut down due to mass cases is not new to this pandemic and trying again when the US has seen a 90 percent increase in cases with kids is not very smart. In Georgia, schools opened on Aug. 3, and by Aug. 12 over 1,193 kids had tested positive for COVID-19 and two schools had already closed. Trying again in Arizona without any differing factors is only going to produce dire consequences.
Schools reopening is not only a threat for students, though, as many teachers are scared to go back, as seen in the recent “sick out” at the J.O. Combs School District. Forcing teachers, especially those at high risk, to put their lives and the lives of their loved ones at risk for a job that can be done online is irresponsible. This is essentially a matter of life or death, so why choose the possibility of contracting the virus when there is zero risk of spreading the virus through digital learning.