We all want SC kids in school for 5 days — but COVID-19 demands we count to 10 first

It was a scene that’s sure to be seen again across our state in the weeks ahead.

Recently about 100 parents and students in the Lexington-Richland 5 district held a protest to demand the immediate resumption of five-day, in-person classroom instruction.

Like many other school districts across South Carolina, Lexington-Richland 5 has held off totally reopening its classrooms until the COVID-19 infection rates in its community have fallen to lower levels.

But the fact is both Richland and Lexington counties still have COVID-19 infection rates well above the 5% target figure set by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

That’s why the Lexington-Richland 5 school board members were right to hold off on giving a specific date for five-day in-person classes to resume — and to stick to its current plan for a potential Oct. 8 start date.

And it’s why other school districts across South Carolina that have yet to reinstate five-day in-person instruction must resist bowing to any clamor that they do so faster, sooner, quicker than what data and good judgment determines to be the right time.

It’s pretty simple. Or it should be, anyway:

As long as COVID-19 remains a threat in South Carolina and to South Carolinians, the state’s school districts should take the approach of first counting to 10 before providing five days of face-to-face instruction.

Quiet science over loud voices

Of course, no one can reasonably argue that under ideal circumstances, five-day in-person instruction is the best thing for students across our state — particularly, as Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman has pointed out, for K-5 students and those with special needs.

Of course, no one can reasonably lack sympathy for the genuinely concerned parents who think it’s time for their children to be back inside classrooms each day.

Of course, no one can reasonably lack empathy for the students who simply crave the joy of being able to once again learn and socially interact with their peers in classrooms five days a week.

But if there was ever a time when cool-headed science has to serve as a braking mechanism on heartfelt emotion, this is it.

While South Carolina’s schools have so far avoided the eyebrow-raising numbers of coronavirus cases that are being recorded in some states, the reality is that a Richland Two school teacher, Demetria Bannister, has died of complications caused by COVID-19.

That’s why while it’s incumbent on South Carolina’s school districts to do all they can to provide five-day instruction as soon as they can, that can never take precedence over their chief responsibility to do so as safely as they can.

In short, here’s the one school lesson that shouldn’t be ignored in the push for five-day in-person instruction:

Quiet science must carry the day over loud protests and raised voices.

This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 7:53 AM.