Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

It’s too early to reopen schools

If it was courting fate to attend school in person in April, May and June, it will be even more risky in August. COVID-19 is spiking in Nevada, especially in Clark County, and it would be borderline irresponsible to open up campuses to in-person learning in the foreseeable future.

The Clark County School District has already acknowledged that in-person learning will be dangerous for young students, but UNLV seems not to understand that 20-year-olds are even more at risk. College campus life includes not only sitting in classrooms, but also in the library and cafeterias. Studies have shown that young adults are becoming asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 and are bringing the infection home to infect parents and siblings. UNLV must be 100% virtual learning this semester, at the very least.

Instead of Nevada getting a handle on the widespread infection, there will likely be a raging epidemic by the end of the year if schools are reopened to some in-person learning. With some businesses now open in Nevada, coupling that with open schools, the state could become like our neighbor Arizona, which can no longer provide adequate care to its sick because the health system there is overrun by a New York-style epidemic.

So children and young adults miss a semester or two of in-person learning. What is a semester compared with the rest of their lives and the possibility that some of them may not make it to the end of the fall semester?