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Comment by jfengel | Hacker News Reader

It's not so much "fuck the kids" as "fuck the teachers".

Even if you believe that "kids don't get sick from COVID", you can't ignore that teachers do. And many of them are in high-risk groups -- older, with comorbidities. Most are vaccinated, but they're still taking a risk.

Teachers are already smarting over the fact that (in the US) they're literally trained to take a bullet for their kids. So when you tell them to open the schools "for the kids", they're hearing that they're disposable human beings, and they don't like it.

Open the schools incautiously, and there won't be any schools to open. Because a school without teachers is just a warehouse.

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> Most are vaccinated, but they're still taking a risk

Pre pandemic they took a risk every day as well, so it's a matter of acceptable risk, which I believe is what the article was focused on. What level of risk is that?

That existing risk was already at the limit of acceptability. New risk being added on pushes many past that limit.

It's made worse by the fact that this additional risk is being left out of the discussion so often. People talk about what's good for the children and their parents and the economy, but not about what the teachers need. They're being treated as disposable, which exacerbates the perception of risk further.

Discussions about school openings that ignore a critical factor are not going to result in what people hope for.

So 0 covid is the only answer? I don't think 0 covid is possible. We would need vaccines that provide sterilizing immunity for that.

> That existing risk was already at the limit of acceptability.

Do you actually thinks so? I've never heard that aspiring teachers are thinking about their increased risk to illnesses, especially since many have children of their own and are exposed to an increased risk by children anyway.

> That existing risk was already at the limit of acceptability.

Nobody forced them to become teachers.

And nobody is forcing them to remain teachers.

With the rise in gun violence at schools, teachers have had to undertake additional training for scenarios that they had not priced in their initial decisions. They did not like that, and they like even less being ignored in the discussion of whether or not to open schools.

So a great number will not remain teachers if they do not feel like they're part of the decision. They're used to being told to "do it for the children", but there are limits, and this will push many past them.

Gun violence in schools is extremely rare. Students and teachers are far more likely to die in vehicle accidents traveling to and from school.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/lockdown-...

Isn't it easier and safer to vaccinate the teachers? There are less of them and they are of the age where the current vaccines are considered safe.

In NYC, teacher's unions refused to go back to work until a vaccine was available. Despite that, the vaccination rates were only 40-60% before the mandate that public sector workers be vaccinated.

I suppose that the teachers that chose not to be vaccinated would not want to impose that on their pupils.

Also, kids are absolutely getting sick from Delta.

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