Day: May 13, 2021

First Day Maskless

How many kids would come to school with the required parental consent form and no mask? It was the question on my mind the whole way to school. The answer:

Eighty students out of 655 enrolled in person. That’s about 15%, which is the district average:

With 87 schools reporting, 7,877 students have opted out of the mask requirement, Waller said. That’s 15% of all Greenville County students. (Source)

And then today, the CDC says that vaccinated individuals can, it seems, go back to business as usual.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can forgo their masks and social distancing in many indoor situations.

“Today, CDC is updating our guidance for fully vaccinated people,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday at a White House COVID-19 briefing. “Anyone who is fully vaccinated, can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing. If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

It makes me wonder — will teachers be able to go back to maskless normalcy soon? And how exactly do I feel about that? I was fussing this morning to a colleague that our governor seemed to say “CDC be damned — we’re going our own way.”

“I will do what the CDC recommends,” I said.

And then today, the CDC relaxes the guidelines.

Morning in the Hall

He comes in, earbuds screaming, slouches down against the wall, and proclaims, “I’m hungry!” Digging around in his bag, he reveals a bag of Doritos and with a rustle of ____ (Material of chips bags) adding to the chaos of the noise coming from his earbuds, he rips the bag open and shoves a handful of chips into his mouth. This is his breakfast; this is how he starts his day. He feeds his brain with aggressive hip-hop; he feeds his body with empty calories. Is it any wonder that the row of grades trailing after his name is also empty, a trail of “NHI’s” (Not Handed In) and grades in the twenties, thirties, and forties.

She sits against the wall, her head down, long hair hiding her face. She hasn’t spoken a word since coming onto the hall half an hour ago, and she only looks up with furtive glances that betray a desperate desire to remain invisible, to appear uninterested, to maintain an air of distance.