The simple way we'll be explaining coronavirus safety protocols to our students

Go ahead and swing without your mask on. Just sanitize your hands afterward. (Image by Roland Mey)

When it comes to school reopening, The Little Middle School is doing our very best to find a way that our students and teachers can sustainably minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.

We can keep students online, sure — we have an online school anyway — but online school was never meant to, on its own, meet all of a child’s social needs every day for an entire year. It’s not sustainable.

Neither are long days spent six feet apart from each other in prophylactic gear. It’s hard enough to concentrate when you can see your teacher’s entire face and you’re not wearing a mask. It’s difficult to learn even when you have the luxury of asking a quiet, private question because your teacher is only eighteen inches away, discreetly standing by your desk. Distance and masks intensify what had already been a deeply challenging endeavor.

In order to follow the guidelines to the letter, we will have to completely redesign our modes of instruction. If physical collaboration or even natural interaction with classmates is impossible, must every class become a teacher-directed lecture, in rows facing straight forward? Again, not sustainable. We can’t reverse a half-century of classroom research and innovation and expect good outcomes for students.

I don’t presume to know the best course of action for everyone. All I can do is listen to experts and figure out what will work for my school.

The problem, however, is not just determining what the guidelines are and implementing them appropriately. It’s also a challenge to follow them consistently. Any teacher knows that when the rules are unclear, they are eventually going to be ignored. So how can we make this simpler without compromising our safety?

Here’s what the experts are saying:

• Being outside is significantly safer than being inside. Here’s what the The New York Times came up with:

“A Japanese study of 100 cases found that the odds of catching the coronavirus are nearly 20 times higher indoors than outdoors. Outdoor gatherings lower risk because wind disperses viral droplets, and sunlight can kill some of the virus. Open spaces prevent the virus from building up in concentrated amounts and being inhaled, which can happen indoors when infected people exhale in a confined space for long stretches of time, said Dr. Julian W. Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester.”

Dr. Erin Bromage says, “Social distancing rules are really to protect you with brief exposures or outdoor exposures…The effects of sunlight, heat, and humidity on viral survival, all serve to minimize the risk to everyone when outside.” He also cites a study that analyzed hundreds of outbreaks and found just one — consisting of only two people — that resulted from outdoor exposure. According to that study, “All identified outbreaks of three or more cases occurred in an indoor environment, which confirms that sharing indoor space is a major SARS-CoV-2 infection risk.”

• The virus is spread “between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).” The CDC goes on to say that a close contact “is defined as anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 48 hours before the person began feeling sick until the time the patient was isolated.” And since you don’t know whether someone is sick before they get sick, you’ve got to assume that everyone is sick — especially in places with community spread of COVID-19.

• According to the CDC, “[c]loth face coverings are a critical preventive measure and are most essential in times when social distancing is difficult.”

In considering the implications of these statements for my students, it becomes overwhelming if I try to eliminate risk. That’s virtually impossible. But if I seek to reduce risk, I can see that being outdoors reduces risk significantly, social distancing is wise, and mask use reduces risk in a situation in which social distancing is not possible. Putting it all together, we’ve got a workable heuristic:

You pick two vertices of the triangle that will make your activity work, and commit to them. Be outdoors whenever possible, then wear a mask if you can’t physically distance yourself from others. Or be outdoors mask-free — and maintain six feet of distance between yourself and others. If you must be indoors, you must also wear a mask and maintain six feet of distance. That’s the deal.

Yes, just as with mask-wearing itself, we are in danger of oversimplifying the situation and giving people a false sense of security. However, if our neighborhood has limited community spread of COVID-19 or declining numbers of new cases (arguably, basic requirements for opening school in the first place), this approach to decision-making can help us plan lessons, manage student activities, and have a sustainable quality of instruction and quality of life while mitigating risk for our school population.

What’s more, “Pick two” is easy to understand. Instead of nagging students about mask-wearing or staying six feet apart, we can simply say, “Pick two!” and they will get the message. This framework also offers individuals an element of choice: Wear a mask, or maintain a physical distance from others, or go inside and do both.

I am prepared for the criticism of this idea. It doesn’t go far enough, the science behind it isn’t conclusive, et cetera. You know what, though? We have a habit of imposing rules on children that are far stricter than what adults demand of themselves. We have the illusion that we can enforce demands upon kids, particularly in a school setting. That will not work in these circumstances, especially when the adults can barely cope with the requirements. How many people’s big ol’ noses have you seen sticking out over the tops of their masks?

We’ve got to be realists, not idealists. There is no perfect solution to the problem of opening schools during the time of the coronavirus. If we are willing to accept that, we can find a way to educate children humanely and safely in the midst of this pandemic.