From a Shorecrest parent
Dear Principal Gonzalez, Superintendent Miner and Superintendent Reykdal:
This is an appeal I'd prefer not to make: please close Shorecrest High School.
Until we, as a society, have a better handle on the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), herding kids into classrooms is irresponsible.
My daughter is a senior at your school. She enjoys solid college prospects. She is unable to simply skip her classes until the we have a better understanding of the extent of the virus, more test kits available in our community, and reasonable quarantine facilities established.
You, however, could do the sensible thing -- and close the school.
We're at a dangerous phase of this virus. While Shoreline School District hesitates to close facilities until they've confirmed a case of coronavirus, the virus is indisputably "in the wild." As of this writing, Washington has sustained 13 fatalities, eleven of which took place at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. "Ground Zero" in our state has killed more people than any other infection site in America, and that hot zone is bubbling away less than ten miles from your desk.
But you haven't closed the school.
Let's imagine for a moment that this virus has the case fatality rate currently reported by the World Health Organization, which is 3.4%. That would indicate (if I remember my school math at all) that there were 382 people infected in our community. Only 70 have been identified as I write this. The rest are still out there, infecting others wherever they go.
But you haven't closed the school.
What if the case fatality rate is much lower, say around the CFR of seasonal flu? That's about 0.1%, according to the Centers for Disease Control. If novel coronavirus is no more fatal on a case-by-case basis than flu, then we're looking at known coronavirus deaths emerging from a much larger infected pool of about 13,000 people -- each of them walking around, working, shopping, opening doors, and shaking hands. To reach this reassuring CFR, we have to assume that most will never show enough symptoms for testing. You don't know -- you CAN'T know -- how many Shorecrest students have been exposed. You'll never know how many get infected, as kids aren't much distressed by it. The threat you're posing isn't to your students. It's to the rest of us.
And you haven't closed the school.
State guidance may argue in favor of simply observing careful social hygiene (among kids?), but every kid at your school has family at home. Your decision to keep the school operational puts every student at high risk of contracting novel coronavirus. Every parent knows that our kids swap germs like trading cards -- and bring them home. "Kids get mild cases" is the most irresponsible reason I can imagine for continuing to water and fertilize a public virus ranch.
Washington is in a state of emergency, yet you haven't closed the school.
My daughter would like to maintain her G.P.A. It's currently over 3.9 points. She has college admissions and scholarships riding on her hard work. She won't be able to graduate strong without continued school attendance, so she risks daily, physical, in-person attendance.
Because you haven't closed the school.
She's been crying this week over the choice between her future and my safety. She knows I belong to two high-risk categories. If I contract novel coronavirus, I'm likely to die of it. So I'm asking you to close the school, but not for my sake.
Close the school because you and I both know many other people put at needless risk by keeping Shorecrest open, including grandparents, transplant recipients, lupus sufferers, et al. This isn't about me. It's about us: the community that is served by, and which supports, Shorecrest High School.
You need to close that school.
Your colleagues in the North Shore District made a different, better decision. Your colleagues at the University of Washington made a different, better decision. If those schools can close classrooms and institute distance learning, surely Shorecrest can do as much. Your faculty and staff are savvy and technologically literate; our students are sharp and eager; surely a high school in the well-funded Shoreline School District is as well-equipped as our neighbors in the Northshore School District.
Why haven't you closed your school?
I urge you to make the responsible choice, Principal Gonzalez, and close Shorecrest High. Stop waiting for a permission slip from Gov. Inslee. SPI Chris Reykdal doesn't live in our community and doesn't have to care, but you do. Shoreline Superintendent Rebecca Miner may not take this precaution, but you can.
Close the school.
Do your part, time now, to rein in the spread of novel coronavirus in a county that federal officials already urge our fellow Americans not to visit.
Err on the side of good sense, make a plan, and close the school.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jack Llewyllson, proud parent of a Shorecrest Scot
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