BERKELEY (CPIX) – As many teachers and their unions oppose the call to reopen schools, the issue reached a political deadlock and a rally in Berkeley on Saturday brought passion on both sides.
Parents, students and medical professionals gathered in a park next to Berkeley High on Saturday morning to discuss the health consequences of not attending school.
“We are seeing increasing depression, anxiety, social isolation, children falling further and further academically and socially,” said Dr. Dan Drozd, a physician for infectious diseases, told the meetings.
Even the CDC now says that, with proper masking and social removal, the risk of contamination for teachers and students can be exacerbated by keeping the damage done by them at home.
“There is no evidence that the opening of schools with these precautions increases the distribution of communities and that the distribution rate in schools is extremely low,” said Dr. Shelene Stine, doctor in the East Bay, said. “We need to think about the safety of our teachers and children from both perspectives.”
But not everyone was willing to hear it.
“You do not love your teachers! … We have had enough of these people!” shouts Berkeley High calculus teacher Masha Albrecht who interrupted the protest, saying she does not feel safe returning to the classroom no matter what medical staff say.
“I’m especially upset about the doctors who say, ‘listen to science’ like we can not read science,” she said. “I’m a mathematician and can read statistical studies. Nobody shared anything with me that convinced that it is safe to go back to school with a whole bunch of children. ”
This brought an answer from Noa Teiblum, senior senior Berkeley.
“They are experts in infectious diseases!” she said. ‘I mean, who are you to think that you have more say in what is safe or not, than experts at the CDC? This is frustrating! ”
Both sides are frustrated and neither of them seems to trust what the other one is saying. This opens a gap between parents and teachers that can survive after the virus has been infected.