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Monroe students back on bus; Vt. officials remain cautious about low virus rates

By Michael Casey, Kathleen Foody, Wilson Ring And Patrick Whittle
Associated Press
Toys that look like weapons. Barefoot students. Disruptive imagery in the background. Pets roaming the room. All a clear violation of rules inside most American classrooms. But that was when most American students were actually inside schools.

How do standards like these translate when everyone is logging on from home? Schools are struggling to figure it out this fall — yet another adaptation demanded of educators during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the learn-from-home world, teachers and experts can easily imagine the friction of extending regular classroom discipline into young people’s previously private spaces.

Can students have posters visible in the background backing social or political movements that others disagree with or find racist? Can they wear clothes at home that are banned from classrooms? How can a teacher respond when a student says or does something that the instructor deems rude, offensive or threatening?

Weeks into the fall semester, a growing number of school officials are navigating those grey areas.

In Colorado, Maryland and Pennsylvania, school administrators asked police to investigate separate incidents of toy guns, BB guns and a suspected rifle visible on video feeds from students’ homes. The actions raised complaints that they had overreacted to something that didn’t threaten either those students or their classmates.

There’s more. A Florida school district promised an investigation of an apparent high school student shouting racial slurs over a virtual class session. A Texas teacher was put on leave after parents noticed her virtual classroom is decorated with (virtual) posters backing LGBTQ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“So many of our legal standards for speech at school are based on the notion that there’s a limited expectation of privacy when you’re at school, and certainly the expectation of privacy in your own home is much more expansive,” says Miranda Johnson, director of the Education Law and Policy Institute at Loyola University.

“I think, under the circumstances, we have to be really mindful of the ways in which discipline is extending into the home environment,” she says.

She recommends that school leaders evaluate whether a student’s action disrupts learning — and if it does, look for a way to address it one on one.

“The ultimate goal should be to avoid punitive or exclusionary consequences, because students have already had their education disrupted in so many different ways,” Johnson says.

It’s not easy when the lines are so blurred. Standards that were never in doubt inside school classrooms have prompted pushback in some communities. On social media, parents and teachers have mocked lists of rules about wearing shoes, keeping pets out of view or banning food and drink during virtual lessons. It is, they say, school going too far and reaching into private spaces.

Angela McByrd, a statistics teacher at Mansueto High School in Chicago, says she’s been horrified by lengthy rule lists shared by other teachers in Facebook groups for educators.

Mansueto is part of the Noble Charter Schools network, known for its demerit-based system enforcing a strict dress code and other rules. McByrd said teachers began pushing back against that approach before the pandemic and demanded more leniency as they prepared for virtual learning this fall.

When her classes began this month, McByrd told her high schoolers that they were expected to participate in class activities but she wouldn’t require video cameras to be on. She had to reassure some students repeatedly that there was no need to wear their usual uniforms.

Schools around the country relying on virtual learning are taking various approaches to rules and discipline. Some have created new policies; others have decided existing rules for student conduct would be enforced, including dress codes.

Advocates, though, worry that many schools will turn to suspensions or expulsions first, neglecting built-in features that allow teachers to turn off a disruptive student’s microphone or camera while still allowing him or her access to the lesson.

“Students have a right to attend school, and they also have a right to express themselves freely,” says Johanna Miller, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Education Policy Center. “And those rights can come into tension with each other … But there are other ways to deal with things without saying to that child: ‘Because you distracted people, you can no longer be part of this class.’”

Reliance on suspensions or expulsions could be particularly damaging for students who are Black and Latino and historically face more frequent discipline for violating school rules, says Andrew Hairston, director of the School-to-Prison Pipeline Project at Texas Appleseed. The group has joined other advocacy groups calling on Texas to ban on expulsions or suspensions during the pandemic.

“If we as adults expect our employers and our friends to give us breaks during this pandemic … to be able to use the restroom, drink water and rest, we should be extending that grace for the young people,” Hairston said.

Ultimately, the uneasy line-blurring between school and home — and melding those different rules in a manner that’s appropriate for extraordinary times — is temporary. Few students or educators expect a different approach to classroom rules when in-person learning again becomes the norm.

Until then, however, those who teach students and mete out discipline will have to navigate an uncertain, constantly shifting educational landscape.

“I know some schools are saying, ‘Oh, we want to present students with some sense of normalcy,’” says McByrd, the statistics teacher in Chicago. “But it’s so easy for people to forget that the times that we’re in right now are not normal. And this is a chance for us to try to do things differently than we’ve done in the past.”

Here are the latest developments regarding the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic throughout New England:

New Hampshire

Two elementary school students who were kicked off a school bus in New Hampshire last week for not keeping their faces covered will be allowed to return on the bus.

The Monroe Consolidated School Board convened an emergency meeting on Monday to say that JPI Transportation had backed down from its decision to ban the two boys, ages 9 and 10, from the bus for the rest of the school year, the Caledonian-Record reported.

Going forward, a student caught not wearing a mask will be banned from the bus for five days. A second offense will bring a 10-day ban and a third offense will lead to a meeting between the bus company and school officials to determine the next penalty.

Funding lawsuit: A New Hampshire court has thrown out a lawsuit by Democratic legislative leaders to stop Republican Gov. Chris Sununu from spending federal COVID-19 relief funds without their permission.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Anderson ruled Tuesday that the legislature had given the governor the power to accept and spend federal money on emergency management.

“Therefore, the Governor’s spending of CARES Act funds is done pursuant to an act of the legislature and is agreeable to the acts and resolves of the general court,” Anderson wrote. “Should the legislature wish to remove this authority, it may do so by changing the law.”

Democrats filed the lawsuit in April seeking an emergency order to halt Sununu’s newly created Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery. They argue only the Legislature’s joint fiscal committee has the power to act on the $1.25 billion in federal funds received by the state.

“Had the Democrats won this case six months ago, our COVID relief efforts would have stalled, negatively impacting every citizen of our state,” Sununu said in a statement. “I am thankful for the Superior Court’s ruling in this case, but it is unfortunate so many state resources were wasted defending this failed lawsuit by Democrat leadership.”

School funding: The executive director of the state’s School Administrator Association warned that districts need almost $70 million to cover costs related to preparing schools to reopen amid the coronavirus.

Carl Ladd, testifying Tuesday at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Relief & Recovery Legislative Advisory Board, said districts were counting on FEMA to reimburse them for costs such as cleaning supplies, dividers and additional transportation that would allow them to reopen and stay open. But the state was advised last month that wasn’t going to happen.

“There was anticipation throughout the summer and fall that there would be FEMA funds available to them for purchase of PPE, sanitizing stations, sanitation equipment,” Ladd told the board. “There was a lot of confusion about FEMA funds. Now, districts are pivoting understanding there are no FEMA funds available to them and using CARES Act allocation to make their schools ready to reopen and move in that direction and to stay open.”

Ladd said that the estimated $68 million for the 276 district in the state is only through October, so that figure could increase.

Board members said they hoped to be able to come to a decision on a funding recommendation by the end of the week. That will be forwarded to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s office.

Positive tests at Dartmouth: Three undergraduate students living off-campus from Dartmouth College have tested positive for COVID-19, the college said.

The students are in isolation and receiving medical care and support, the college’s COVID-19 task force leaders said in an email to the college community. The state health departments in New Hampshire and Vermont are working on contact tracing. Further information on where the students live was not provided by the college or health officials.

Dartmouth’s COVID-19 dashboard also shows that two members of its faculty or staff also are infected currently. The college has reported a total of 12 cases since July 1.

The Valley News reports about 2,000 Dartmouth students, including graduate students, are living off campus, in Hanover, Lebanon and as far away as Grantham, New Hampshire, and in Quechee, Vermont. Most classes are being taught remotely.

Vermont

Vermont still has some of the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the country and officials are hoping to be able to keep it that way even though many nearby states and counties are seeing their numbers increase.

Officials said during a briefing Tuesday that travel appeared to be one of the main routes of transmission of the virus and many people were visiting Vermont during the fall foliage season.

Gov. Phil Scott said he was hopeful that the end of fall, traditionally one of the most important times of the year for Vermont’s tourism industry, would mean fewer people would be visiting the state from areas with high rates of infection, but there is only so much the state can do.

“We can’t shut down our borders,” Scott said. “We can’t check papers as they come across the border. So we have to rely on some sort of honor system.”

The travel map the state developed that allows people to visit Vermont without quarantining is continuing to shrink. There is no enforcement mechanism attached to the system that as of Tuesday allows just under 1.9 million people from counties across the Northeast with low viral rates are eligible to visit Vermont without quarantining.

That figure is down about 1 million in the last week. When the system was first developed in July, about 11.5 million people were eligible to visit Vermont.

Scott said he’s hoping “we’ll be able to get back to some to some sort of normalcy, that we’ll be able to welcome people in to ski.

But “it will look much different,” he said.

Hockey infections: Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said 12 cases of the virus have been traced to both adult and youth hockey players at the Central Vermont Civic Center in Montpelier.

He said contact tracing is underway, but the exact mode of transmission is not yet clear, whether it is due to playing or practicing hockey or to activities incidental to the sport, such as car-pooling to practices or team gatherings.

“Team rosters are being collected and a timeline is being developed that will guide further actions,” Levine said.

The numbers: On Tuesday, the Vermont Health Department reported 11 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to just under 1,890.

Of the new cases, three were in Chittenden and Washington counties, two in Bennington County and one each in Windham, Orange and Orleans counties.

The number of deaths remains at 58, a figure that has not changed in more than two months.

While Vermont’s numbers remain low, over the last two weeks there have been a total of 130 new cases, the highest two-week total since early June.

Maine

Maine businesses are dealing with a new set of guidelines designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on Tuesday in preparation for the cold winter months.

The state has increased its limit on indoor seating to either 50% capacity or 100 people, whichever is less, according to the office of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. The outdoor gathering limit remains 100 people, the office said.

The state has also said indoor service at bars may resume on Nov. 2. The new rules also slightly relax the face covering requirements for businesses such as spas and tattoo parlors.

The new rules ease some restrictions, but also expand requirements about mask use to more parts of the state, said Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Nirav Shah.

The state has expanded the scope of enforcement statewide, instead of limiting it to Maine’s coastal counties and more populated cities, the governor’s office said.

“At the same time we’ve liberalized our approach there, we’ve also tightened our approach in which parts of the state the mask mandate is enforced,” Shah said.

The numbers: Another 26 coronavirus cases have been reported in the state, the Maine CDC reported Tuesday.

That brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 5,780, while the number of deaths was unchanged at 143, officials said. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine was about 36, which is about four more than it was a week ago.

Shah said most of the cases in the state are occurring in York, Cumberland and Somerset counties.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Birx urges caution: Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, urged continued caution about the pandemic during an appearance at a community college in Maine.

Birx spoke Tuesday at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. She said now is a bad time for people to let their guards down in the fight against the virus.

“We need people to focus on personal protection,” Birx said.

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