Princeton High students start petition calling for remote learning option due to increase in COVID cases
A Princeton High student has begun a petition calling on public schools officials to offer a temporary asynchronous option for students who want to learn remotely because of the spike in COVID cases in the region.
The South Brunswick Public Schools and the Trenton Public Schools will offer remote learning only for the first two weeks of the year due to the increase in COVID cases in order to help stop the spread of the virus.
“With high schools and universities around the country transitioning to a virtual or hybrid option, Princeton needs to be the next. The district must offer a temporary asynchronous option for students who want to stay safe in their learning amid a raging pandemic,” reads the petition organized by Harmonie Ramsden. The online petition has been signed by more than 230 students and parents so far.
As of 9 a.m. Jan. 2, Mercer County had 995 new confirmed cases of COVID, another 262 probable cases, and two more deaths related to complications from the virus. A total of 4,280 people in the state are hospitalized due to COVID. From Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, there were 125 confirmed cases of COVID in Princeton.
“This number has increased exponentially from only a few weeks ago, due to the Omicron variant, unsafe vacations, and cold weather’s negative effect on immune systems,” reads the petition.
“Testing at local centers has been overwhelmed by the number of Princetonians who are exposed to the virus. Forcing us to decide between skipping school or exposing ourselves to COVID is something the district should not pose to us. As students, we should feel comfortable in our learning environment, rather than worrying about a virus threatening our livelihood.”
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Please no more remote school. Please stop talking about remote school. Our children need to go to school. We need to go to work for so many reasons including to pay our highest-in-the-nation property taxes and our$30k per child public school spend, which is among the highest spends on public education in the world. In t he world people. Please remote school should be an option for anyone who wants it but EVERY CHILD AND PARENT SHOULD HAVE THE OPTION OF school in person. School in person should be required and it should be illegal to take away a Childs extra curriculars bc they don’t have a vaccine or a covid test. Vaccines do not prevent infection w Omnicron. Testing is pointless bc the majority of people w Omnicron are not even going to have symptoms and there are not enough tests. Omnicron is less bad than the flu and we don’t test for that or keep everyone home from school bc one kid has the flu or common colds. Omnicron is basically a common cold. Talking about mandatory remote school right now really puts children last and parents further than last. Everyone is going to get Omnicron which is a very mild illness in 99.999 percent of the people. The hospitalization rate for Omnicron has a hospitalization rate of 0.3-0.6 % max, according to all that has been reported. There is no need to test for it bc it is very mild -we don’t test for every cold. Everyone is going to get it and all these kids and parents have probably already had it. If some people want to remote school or remote school for snow day, ok. But remote school for everyone should be prohibited.
We should have synchronous – not asynchronous school every snow day. There is enough time of the upper middle class child who is not allowed to work and not allowed to do anything but go on the Internet now.. there is enough time for them to play in the snow after school gets out at 3 p.m. I mean why does school get out all the time at 1 p.m. last year anyway… why does it start at 7 a.m. and end at noon half the time.. What the fxxk are we paying for and why do we have to accept this ? Snow days should be over. Enough is enough. Princeton Public schools spend $30k per kid. Our property taxes are the highest in the nation, bc of our public school spending. You cannot jut cancel school … if it snows, the kids need to be mandated to synchronous live instruction on the screens…. there should be no more snow days. Why did the schools spend all this money on the remote learning option if they are not ever going to go to school.. Why all the money on buildings if they are not going to be allowed to use all the things that have been purchased w our tax dollars. Enough is enough.
Just an observation, walking through town over the last week, very few people wearing masks and/or distancing themselves. While this article is about the high school petition, this will never end if folks don’t get vaccinated and mask up. Based on the stats, I unfortunately also seem to conclude that despite testing positive, there have been plenty of people in this country that decided the ignore because of mild or asymptomatic so that they just went on the vacation plans anyway. This isn’t only about the unvaccinated, this is about the vaccinated believing that they are immune and therefore not a threat to others. A few weeks ago, we were well into double digits of people having vaccinated but still having caught Covid. Folks seem to want to make the excuse that it is just the unvaccinated that are being hospitalized. While predominantly, they are not.
For the record, I am vax’ed and boostered. And, frustrated…
School needs to remain in-person. There was very little learning that happened last year with virtual instruction. The students need to be in person for learning to happen. Schools need to remain in-person.
South Brunswick and other districts have made the decision not to risk their children’s health by forcing them into closed, indoor, spaces of public schools for the next two weeks. Actual incidence of cases in our local area won’t be known for 7-10 days as people have just returned, if they jad travelled and with tests on tight supply we really won’t know where we are at until then. What we do know is people are taking more risks and, not surprisingly, case counts are rising. What we do know know is what developmental impacts COVID may cause over time – immediate death is not the only adverse outcome to aim to avoid.
For those who believe Omicron only presents as mild symptoms – vaccinated, boosted, or not – I would strongly encourage you to swing by your local ER, hospital or otHer healthcare center. They are being overrun. Hopefully you don’t have an accident, fall, or health emergency as your odds of receiving timely care and surviving what should otherwise be survivable is dropping precipitously daily.
Moving virtual for two weeks is just sound public health. The sooner we take preventive measures the faster the return to normalcy.