Easing Back to School Covid Anxiety
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Back to School
No matter how you might be feeling about it, it appears that many schools are starting back up, even though in many states the number of Covid cases is on the rise. Personally, I am feeling very anxious about heading back to school amid all of this. For me, a lot of that stems from having several family members that fall into the high risk category. Because of this, the reality is that I may not see them again until either next summer or if once schools are forced to close again and I’ve been quarantined with my family for a few weeks. All of those anxious feelings have led to me lying awake in bed for hours at a time, my mind racing over all of the what ifs. So I decided to sit down and really think about ways to ease that growing anxiety for the upcoming school year.
What I Know-The Custodians
First of all, I do know that EVERYONE at the schools are working hard to make sure our children return to the safest environment possible. Custodians are being trained on the safest ways to clean and disinfect to keep our kids safe. In fact, knowing what will be going on at my children’s own school in regards to cleaning and disinfecting makes me realize that the custodians don’t get enough recognition or pay. You guys, the custodians at our school will be disinfecting the playground after every single recess! We have 18 classes at our school. I can’t even imagine! That’s a ton of disinfecting and that’s just for the outside. Yes, you heard me right. These people are being asked to disinfect the outside! Then instead of being responsible for changing trash bags at lunch time in 3-4 trash cans in the cafeteria, they are now responsible for changing every. single. trash bag. in all 18 classrooms at lunch since kids will be eating in our classrooms this year. Talk about having to run around like crazy people during lunch time. The bathrooms have to be disinfected and cleaned EXTRA during the day. Every desk and chair gets disinfected every night. Entire rooms get sanitized once a week with a machine. This is all on top of their regular job duties. They still have mowing to do, regular cleaning to do, vomit to clean up, delivery drivers to deal with, supplies to order, tons of teachers requests to respond to. Yet these men and women are doing all of this for no extra pay and just to keep our kids safe. I feel very confident in knowing that my kids will go back to a clean, safe building! These people care about our kids and their safety!
What I Know-The Principals
These men and women are working tirelessly right now to make some tough decisions. Most of them have been working all summer, even during what little time they get off, to plan to make sure the school routines and procedures are as safe as possible for our kid’s and teacher’s return. These people are making the best decisions that they can based on the facts they have at that exact moment in time, and then those facts are ever changing, causing these professionals to have to stop and completely rethink their decisions and routines once they’re presented with new facts. They do all of this knowing that those decisions won’t make everyone happy and knowing that they WILL certainly hear from all of those who are unhappy. There are new rules and regulations to learn and implement on top of making sure previous rules and regulations are met. Parents and teachers are constantly calling or emailing, often asking questions that there is no definite answer to yet. And if a parent or teacher doesn’t agree with one of those new rules, regulations, or procedures…who do you think is the first to hear that complaint? You guessed right! The principal! I can NOT imagine fielding emails and calls from unhappy teachers and parents all day long. This folks, is not an easy job at all. These people are just trying to do what is best and safest for our kids given the situation that they’ve been thrown into. They got into education because they wanted what was best for kids. And now they are principals because they want what’s best for kids AND teachers. So please be kind. These people care about our kids and their safety!
What I Know-The Cafeteria Staff
School hasn’t even started yet, and the cafeteria staff is already reporting to work without any extra pay to figure out how to prepare and serve healthy meals to all those kids that have been missing them so much since school let out in March. They know the kids won’t be coming into their cafeteria to eat. So they are tasked with making sure they still create meals that the kids enjoy along with learning the new rules, regulations, and procedures just like everyone else. These people care about our kids and their safety!
What I Know-The Bus Drivers
These people have been meeting tirelessly for WEEKS without any extra pay to help develop routes and routines to keep our kids as safe as possible. Not only are these men and women tasked with driving our kids to school safely despite weather and road conditions, they also have to supervise the kids to make sure they aren’t getting hurt. Now they have to figure out a way to keep our kids socially distanced on a bus, while making sure the kids keep masks on, behave, and still get to school safely. These people care about our kids and their safety!
The Secretaries and Nurses
These people are working behind the scenes to answer the concerns of parents and teachers alike. They are doing it with no extra pay. They are learning the new procedures, rules, and regulations to make sure that everyone working in the building, being schooled in the building, and coming to the building stays safe. These people care about our kids and their safety!
What I Know-The Teachers and Aides
Almost every teacher I know (myself included) became a teacher or aide because we love kids and want to teach them and help them grow into productive citizens. As scary and depressing as Covid is right now, teachers and aides are still working their tails off to make sure kids are safe while in their care. That’s no different from any other year. Sure our classrooms might look a bit different this year. I won’t lie about being sad that I’ve had to take items home that usually make my classroom fun because we just can’t use them this year or we need more room for desks. But what I do know is that as a teacher, I am working my butt off to find new routines and procedures that will still keep my kids in my classroom safe and yet still make the school year fun! A simple search on Facebook will return tons of groups where teachers are collaborating with other teachers in an attempt to make sure that their procedures will be safe for all of their kids and that their lessons will still be engaging and fun. I’ve bought so much stuff out of my own pocket and had to rethink so many of my procedures and lessons-just to keep these kids who I don’t even know yet safe and make sure they have the absolute best school year ever. For a whole entire year, teachers love stranger’s kids as if they are their own. These kids feel like our own at the end of the year. We are still going to teach and give it our all because we still care!
A Pediatrician’s Advice
I don’t know if you have seen this video that has gone viral from a pediatrician about back to school, but in case you haven’t, you need to watch it. It couldn’t have appeared in my Facebook feed at a more appropriate time. I had just spent the previous night tossing and turning and worrying. And then as if someone knew, this is what appeared in my Facebook feed.
This message! Wow! These words: “The decision that you make about school is the right decision. How you choose to think about the decision you make is what will make it right. How you choose to think about it will create how you feel about it. Period. You can’t see what the future holds for the choice you’re making that makes you feel afraid. We never have the answer of what the future holds. Whatever you choose will be right if you choose to think that it is.”
So, what are you choosing? I’m choosing to believe that the people who work at my children’s school CARE and LOVE my children. I’m choosing to believe that those people want to keep my children safe, and that they are doing all that they can to make the whole school experience the best that they possibly can for my child this year. I’m choosing to “Stop marinating in fear.” The people working with my children CARE about them as much as I do. And I trust that they are doing the best they can.
