I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control • Hacker News Board

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#181

Post by parkingrift » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

voisin wrote: post #130

parkingrift wrote: post #74

Quoted post unavailable.

Death is only one outcome. Other consequences (e.g. scarred lung tissue) also exist, and don’t fall neatly in the stats that are regularly discussed.

If we want to have this discussion, we should have it holistically.

Negative mental health outcomes for children don't fall neatly into regularly discussed statistics. Poor educational outcomes don't fall neatly into regularly discussed statistics.

Suicide attempts among young persons aged 12-25 have risen 30-50% during the pandemic. An order of magnitude more children aged 5-18 will attempt suicide or die from suicide than will have died from Covid-19.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7024e1.htm?s_cid=mm...

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#182

Post by fzeroracer » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

parkingrift wrote: post #91

lozenge wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link doesn't mention deaths at all, it talks about disruption to education and an inability to teach despite the move away from remote learning.

Yes, because of the absurd hyperbole and hysterics associated with Covid. It’s pandemonium precisely because of the hysterics, overreacting, and absurd rules and procedures. We’re seriously treating this like it’s the measles.

This is objectively wrong. It's not 'hyperbole and hysterics', it's the fact that people simply cannot work when sick. Every discussion around covid, about returning to work, about trying to return to normalcy ignores that even among people that are vaccinated covid can and does still hit you hard and can prevent you from working anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Especially if it spreads to other family members that you then also have to take care of.

The way that it spreads like wildfire is precisely the issue because there are multiple school systems where half or more of teachers are out or unable to teach due to being sick. If your solution is to force them to work then you're going to get poorly ran classrooms at best and at worst you're going to see the next 'Great Resignation' but this time among teachers.

I have multiple friends in the schooling system and this is exactly what's happening.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#183

Post by parkingrift » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

newsbinator wrote: post #101

parkingrift wrote: post #74

Quoted post unavailable.

Those children bring covid home. If you're going to design a virus incubation factory, what you do is put 30 people in a room for 8 hours, turn on the heat, close the windows, try to keep them talking, singing and yelling, then at the end of the day put them on a bus to distribute to every household in town. Repeat for 22 days a month.

In NYC you must be vaccinated to...

* Work at any private company

* Work at any public company

* Work at a public school

* Visit a public school

* Attend a public school

* Go to a restaurant, bar, gym, etc

This is the law. The "30 people in a room for 8 hours" have a vaccination rate near 100%.

So... what are we worried about, again? Why do teachers need to quarantine just because they may have been exposed to someone who may (confirmed or not) have had COVID-19?

For all intents and purposes you must be vaccinated to live in NYC. Which is probably why 95% of all NY residents 12+ have at least one dose and 84% of NYC residents 12+ are fully vaccinated.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#184

Post by happytoexplain » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

eigenrick wrote: post #141

As I type this, I'm infected with Covid. I have a wife and three kids, all tested positive. The oldest complained of a sore throat for one day, the others were "a bit tired" for two days. I've had it the worst. I had intestinal issues for 3 says and now have a mild sore throat and fatigue. Overall, I skipped about 2 half days of work because I felt tired. (I work from home) Omicron has swept through pretty much every…

Your conclusion may be broadly correct (of course some of these things help a non-zero amount, but maybe are futile long-term). However, if you want to convince people that a different solution to the shared problem is better, it doesn't sound honest to call them "hysterical", as the favorite insult goes right now.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#185

Post by ryandrake » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

sovietmudkipz wrote: post #79

The best thing about people talking about Covid is how civil and understanding everyone is about everyone else’s perspective. It restores my faith in our society (USA) when I see or overhear a conversation about Covid and our nation’s response to it. I think all people have very high emotional intelligence and have willingness to understand, and not fight. I’m glad that 99% of conversations don’t devolve into tribal…

It's sad. COVID discussion has ruined multiple online forums I (used to) participate in. Well-moderated forums that I used to love and respect, all turn into the YouTube Comment Section whenever the topic comes up. Something about the COVID, even moreso than politics, draws the trolls like a lightning rod and is astonishingly resistant to effective site moderation. I think mods (not just here) have gotten really good at nuking obvious flamewars, spam, and left-vs-right political threads, but for whatever reason hesitate when it comes to misinformation. HN has a guideline about "political or ideological battles" but what do you do when the entire topic has become ideological?

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#186

Post by edw519 » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

mrkentutbabi wrote: post #94

edw519 wrote: post #30

Wow, it looks like this is the closest our schools have ever been at preparing students for life in the real working world. I could have written this myself about work (with a few changes noted below): Classes that I did attend were quiet and empty. would be: Meetings that I did attend were meaningless and pointless. I arrived at school and promptly went to Study Hall...Second period I had another absent teacher...Th…

Here take my “Most Off Topic Comments Of the Year” Award!

Hardly.

OP is complaining about inconveniences that are standard everywhere I've worked for years.

I noticed it immediately and pointed it out.

Open your mind a little and you too may notice interesting parallels between the lines of code.

It's way better that your reptilian "Most Snarky of the Year" response.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#187

Post by soneil » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:40 PM UTC

parkingrift wrote: post #180

soneil wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The single biggest issue I'm seeing in the original post is 40% of teachers being out. All the talk of being corralled into study hall is the fallout from this 40% figure. With this, it really does't matter if zero children 5-18 have died of covid - the school still can't operate correctly with half of its staff missing. Solving "sending children to school" without solving "having teachers available" results in zero…

>The single biggest issue I'm seeing in the original post is 40% of teachers being out. All the talk of being corralled into study hall is the fallout from this 40% figure. The reason teachers are out is because of the absurd quarantine rules. If you are fully vaccinated, but not boosted, you are required to quarantine for 5-10 days if you were exposed to someone with "confirmed or suspected COVID-19." At present the…

That's a tough nut to solve, because by time you find out if quarantine was necessary or not, it's too late. So do we err towards spreading less, or err towards teaching more. It seems difficult to have both.

(Well, we could - replace whiteboards with screens, have the students onsite but the teachers remote. Not sure this is entirely practical?)

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#188

Post by kcplate » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:41 PM UTC

Glyptodon wrote: post #109

parkingrift wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we go. Move the goalpost. The parents and family should go get vaccinated, no?

Not moving the goal post. I agree that criminalization of leaving home for the unvaccinated gets more appealing by the day. But I also don't know that vaccines actually end it at this point.

> I agree that criminalization of leaving home for the unvaccinated gets more appealing by the day.

Don’t recall anyone in the thread suggesting criminalization (except you), so it’s pretty strange that you brought it up. Perhaps that is appealing to you, but it sure isn’t appealing to me. In fact it is so abhorrent an idea to me that I am pretty much open to anything that would prevent such totalitarianism from happening in my community.

And just for context, I’m vaccinated and boosted, so this is not some anti-vax position. I am just dead set against anything specifically designed to create class prejudices and creating a new group of “untouchables”. This is 2022, we should be way beyond such foolishness.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#189

Post by da39a3ee » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

Glyptodon wrote: post #124

da39a3ee wrote: post #62

What’s Study Hall?

Traditionally, a "class" where you study, do homework, etc., but which in practice is usually a lot of so nothing and goofing off. I think it's a way to get funding for educational minutes without actually having to have anything taught for a period.

OK thanks. Does it (despite the name) take place in a conventional class room? Just wanted to check that the implications wasn't that it was particularly bad for covid transmission, like a big crowded gymnasium or something.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#190

Post by kcplate » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 5:49 PM UTC

fzeroracer wrote: post #182

parkingrift wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because of the absurd hyperbole and hysterics associated with Covid. It’s pandemonium precisely because of the hysterics, overreacting, and absurd rules and procedures. We’re seriously treating this like it’s the measles.

This is objectively wrong. It's not 'hyperbole and hysterics', it's the fact that people simply cannot work when sick. Every discussion around covid, about returning to work, about trying to return to normalcy ignores that even among people that are vaccinated covid can and does still hit you hard and can prevent you from working anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Especially if it spreads to other family member…

> at worst you're going to see the next 'Great Resignation' but this time among teachers

This will be a controversial comment, but after decades of teachers telling to public on how “essential” they are to society (a point in which I agree), I have watched teachers and their unions spend the last 2 years pushing how “non-essential” they are due to pandemic fears. If a bunch want to resign, so be it. I would rather have the ones who want to be there, realize how essential they are, and willing to risk a virus to provide that essential service.