For a few, COVID is a Hoax, but for ASD Staff the Concern is Real
The issue of children and ASD staff returning to school has turned into an explosive and divisive issue in Anchorage just days before the 2020 presidential election and two weeks before the Anchorage School District pushes ahead with its plan to return K-2 students to the classroom.
Some feel children suffer from the lack of in-person instruction and need to return to the classroom. Many people agree with those sentiments but feel that the time to return to school is less than ideal as Alaska and the municipality of Anchorage are seeing record-high hospitalizations and new daily cases.
Healthcare officials have expressed repeated concerns about Alaska's healthcare capacity and staffing. Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said this past weekend, "We've always had a really limited healthcare infrastructure and really rely on prevention, as well as communities working collectively," and I just want to be open and transparent about what our system looks like."
The CEO of Providence Alaska Medical Center also said as much in a recent Anchorage city briefing, describing how there wasn't enough staff in the city to open the Alaska Airlines Center and provide moderate care to patients if needed.
"We have all these alternate care sites, in theory, and they're ready to go," Jared Kosin said. "But the question is, will we have staffing? And it's a major, major limiting factor."
Anchorage is being split along political divides at a time when Alaskans can't afford to bicker over the risks facing our limited and vulnerable healthcare system. Historically, Alaska had run at or near capacity even before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Trump supporters, COVID deniers, and anti-maskers have been all over the Anchorage Daily News comment section touting the death rate and using it as a basis to open schools up without a mask requirement. They openly scoff at pleas from local health officials asking everyone to do their part and ridicule individuals for simply asking others to "mask up" and do their part to lower our new cases in the municipality. For many, COVID-19 is a hoax, but for Anchorage School District staff, the threat is very real.
Many teachers claim they will be financially responsible for providing their own PPE and related supplies in their classrooms. One teacher recently wrote: "It is not safe for anyone to go back for staff as well as students. The district is not providing the protection needed, just leaving it to teachers to provide what we need to be safe at the bare minimum. Bishop needs to care less about money and more about ALL the people she is in charge of."
Another teacher also wrote, "It's irresponsible to return to school! ASD administrators told me I need to personally buy supplies for my classroom in order to be COVID-safe. ASD needs to purchase ALL recommended supplies, and if they can't, then schools should not be opened."
Some Anchorage parents are concerned about ASD staffing levels. "The plans and resources developed to protect the community is not sufficient. The schools need to hire more staff to support the students safely."
Other ASD staff members have expressed safety concerns surrounding the issues of some developmentally disabled children who spit, hit, and bite through no fault of their own.
An online petition intending to encourage ASD to reevaluate its plans to reopen has gathered over 1,640 signatures from ASD staff, families, and Anchorage residents. Close to 200 related comments protesting the decision to reopen were made.
One commonality in all of these emails and public comments is that everyone agrees children need to go back to school, but that a majority feel that ASD staff should not be paying out of pocket for their own PPE and supplies, that they should not have to create their own mitigation plans, and that the current increasing spread of COVID-19 in Anchorage makes a return to the classroom unsafe at this time.
