Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis are making plans for returning to in-person learning. Saint Mary Magdalen Catholic School will be returning on August 20 and prioritizing the health of the children.
Saint Mary Magdalen has been working diligently over the summer to clean and disinfect all areas of the school for the safe return of the children. A Coronavirus operations/safety plan handbook has been developed outlining all of the precautions that will be set in place. Mrs. Wiseman, principal of Saint Mary Magdalen, teachers and parents from the medical field were in collaboration to insure the safety of the children.
Before the start of the school day children and staff will complete a health screening and will have their temperatures taken before entering the building. The classrooms have been set up for social distancing, masks will be worn and grades will be staying with their cohorts. The school building will be constantly disinfected throughout the day and non-essential people will not be allowed to enter the building.
Knowing children are starved to be in a community and have interaction with others, Saint Mary Magdalen feels face to face education is the best way to continue to bring the mission of our church and our school to our families while keeping healthy and safe. We are excited to bring the students back to Saint Mary Magdalen knowing their safety and health are our number one priority.
It is sad to see such political wrangling on this and other sites: pinning school reopening decisions on Republican and/or Democratic agendas. As Tina Hogan succinctly and correctly said, school kids need community, not isolation at home. St. MM is taking good precaution and so can conscientiously reopen with the stated purpose at the forefront—to help students and not hinder their academic, spiritual and emotional advancement. There are risks in everything. They will respond immediately, I’m sure, to threats of Covid-19 in their midst.
Read Mark’s response below about the Cardinals and then get back to us.
abc123, i’m getting back to you. Couple of questions.
Let’s start with the Cardinals.
How many of the 35% are under doctors care. How many are in serious condition? How many have died? How many of the family members of the 35% have tested postive and how many of them have died. Since so many have tested positive, how are they curing, what are the doctors prescribing.
MLB – How many teams have quit playing due to the virus. How many are in serious shape and how many ball players have died? Does Mark have a breakdown of each team, or only the Cardinals? Should we make our decisions/arguments based solely on the Cardinals experience? We should use are critical thinking skills that we were taught in the class room and challenge mark and the media, this cardinal example is at best weak.
btw. all of my family members are essential workers and have been working everyday since this started. 0 cases 100% healthly, every company they work for, handful of cases, no deaths, everybody that had it, back and working.
Lake of the Ozarks. How many got the virus and how many have died?
Protesters how many got the virus and how many have died?
Trump Rally – how many got the virus and how many have died?
Late night bars – how many got the virus and how many have died?
When schools do reopen, should a breakout in one school force all schools to shutdown?
there are many more questions, i think we can learn off each other.
sorry – meant to say that is certainly a good thing.
I’d say it’s a safe bet the Cardinals are getting excellent care. Can the same be said of ALL the school children? Some may be from uninsured families. And the Cardinals are adults, who we can presume are more likely to follow social distancing and healthcare matters dilligently.
How interesting that you say we should “challenge mark and the media” (which we should), but apparently we are not supposed to challenge Trump and the Republicans. Funny that.
Few people have died in the Cardinals, at Lake of the Ozarks, rallies, etc., and that is certainly a good thing. But another often-overlooked issue is that of those who recover, many have what are thought to be long term or even permanent health issues from the virus. So let’s not kid ourselves and say that just because few young people die that this is not a serious health issue.
You asked a bunch of questions and I don’t think you have the answers and I don’t either. It was an example of one group of people with the resources to take care of people and possibly prevent any outbreak. They could not. My example was that a small school with limited resources could have issues and I would have to think about sending my kids to school if I had any.
What the rest of the MLB teams are doing is probably not that much different than the Cardinals I am guessing since our local news only reports on the local team.
The other thing is you constantly mention “how many have died?” While death is not to be taken lightly the issue of a sick child that now has to be quarrantined for the next 14 days along with the family is quite a burden in and of itself. You take a family with several kids, a family struggling or not, how many times can they get their boss to let them take off from work because of a sick kid or just because you are in close contact with you kid. And how many other children and families will be affected by that one child?
For a real life example of what can happen if you come back to do something and things do not work out just look at Cardinals baseball. You cannot even begin to compare the amount of money that a school has to invest in their students and teachers like a major league baseball team, I am just mentioning money but you also know they have a huge team of doctors, specialist, etc at their disposal and they have not stopped the virus. Unless it has changed most schools no matter their size or public or private can compare at all with the staff that serves the Cardinals baseball team. As of this morning it was something like 35% have tested positive and who knows if it is over.
If I had a kid in school I would have to wonder the wisdom of putting my kid in school.
I agree with Ms. McMackin.
If St. Mary Magdalen was “prioritizing the health of the children” (and staff…and who ever mentions them?) they would pay attention to every recommendation and the facts and open virtually, until community spread in Missouri is under control.
Based on this premise so would colleges that are opening back up this fall. Nothing is consistent in all of this. Certain individuals are picking the winners and losers and picking those (individuals and businesses) deemed essential or “nonessential.”
Too bad our teacher union ran public schools couldn’t do the same thing. Closing schools is detrimental to our future generations.
So is dying.
Yeah a .02 % of dying… You and I have a greater chance of dying in a car accident.
Well there’s 150,000 of us dead in this country and counting, so what number is 150,000 0.02% of? I doubt if you can do the math on that, Marty, but the answer is 750 million. That would mean that we’d have to have had 750 million people in this country infected with the virus for what you said to be true. Too bad it won’t be safe to open the middle school cause you could probably learn something if you sat in on some classes smart guy
Boy Jim thanks for putting me in my place… I was incorrect on the percentage as according to the latest statistic there are 4.85 million in the USA with “confirmed” cases and 159K have died. That would be 3% of those “confirmed” cases have died (correct me if I am wrong, Jim). However let’s say you have cancer and die of a heart attack? Is that death counted as cancer?
The death rate may be low for children, but then they will come into contact with their parents, older siblings, friends, etc., many of whom may have compromised immune systems and/or be elderly.
abc123. maybe we should lock up the folks with compromised immune systems and/or the elderly not the healthy folks. with or without school being opened shouldn’t the compromised immune systems and elderly folks be staying away from the virus carrying children.
Nobody’s talking about locking up anyone. Yes, elderly probably should practice social distancing with children, as anyone should. But since they are often in the same family, we know that’s often not going to happen. Kids at school are exposed to people outside their families, which is a bit different than if they stayed home.
Marty, if it weren’t for teachers’ unions, the conditions in schools would be far, far less safe for everyone, including students. Don’t you benefit from the work of a union to keep your workplace safe and reasonable?
Thank you, Beth!! With rising cases, I believe our public schools are Totally doing the right thing! I wish SMM well and perhaps private schools have the resources and small numbers public schools do not have. I DO know that starting IN buildings, then having from day to day not know if classes will close down is an insecurity and inconsistency scary for kids and impossible to handle for most parents. Public schools did not make these decisions about teachers, the decisions are about kids. (Career educator of 43 yrs here)
Teachers unions, like most unions, have lived past their need. Now teachers unions are now nothing but a branch of the Democratic Party.
Just like churches are a branch of the Republican party? At least teachers pay taxes. Churches not only do not pay tax, but then they in some cases get tons of cash with the economic stimulus package.
Only these “republican” churches are not indoctrinating all of our children.
Oh, so you get to selectively cherry-pick which groups are indoctrinating children and which are not? Got it.
of course they are
“Respond immediately to threats of Covid-19 in their midst”? When is everyone going to wake up to the fact that it is constantly “in our midst”? SMM is taking an unnecessary action. Our children will rebound after this is over, which it will be when a vaccine is made available.