Taken in the terms most favorable to @SuptJaraCCSD, the CCSD Superintendent is presenting an incomplete argument that requires placing a life or death gamble against a certainty of increases COVID spread. (1/x) https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/commentary-keeping-clark-county-schools-closed-would-be-a-disaster-2183734/

@SuptJaraCCSD’s strongest argument is that remote education is leading to increased suicides and mental health damage. I fully accept this (though I’d like independent review of the suicide data). I have a teen at home; I know what he’s talking about. It’s real. (2/x)

The hard problem, though, is that this harm has to be balanced against the increase in community COVID spread (and deaths) that would result from bringing kids back into schools. (3/x)

@SuptJaraCCSD does not attempt to make this comparison of harms. He just asks a reader to focus on only one side of the scale. That’s an error, and a very dangerous one. (4/x)

@SuptJaraCCSD makes another mistake. Or really, a dangerous bet. He’s gambling that his complex “hybrid” plan would cure the mental health problems. But why should we think that it will? (5/x)

Under @SuptJaraCCSD’s hybrid plan, students would be in school only a few hours each week, and restricted from normal forms of social interaction when they are there. By being present together, they increase risk from the virus, with questionable gains in social contact. (6/x)

Meanwhile, three days a week students would watch other kids in class from their bedrooms, on a screen. Unlike now, teachers won’t be focused on the remote aspect of their education. The sense of disconnectedness and poor learning may actually get worse. (7/x)

Also: Many students would opt not to go to in person school at all. Which will be rational for those with family members who are especially at risk for COVID. Their sense of disconnectedness and of being left out will likely increase. @SuptJaraCCSD needs to address that. (8/x)

In short, even assuming @SuptJaraCCSD’s narrow framing of the problem, it’s a gamble to assume that he’s even offering a fully thought out solution. It wouldn’t be shocking if the mental health problems remain, while COVID gets even worse. (9/x)

Here is what seems missing @ClarkCountySch : Consideration of ways to deliver education remotely with more focus on social connection and mental health supports. Don’t just do regular classes over Google Meet (which is what I see my kids’ schools attempting). (10/x)

Instead of creativity and outside the box thinking, we have a proposal to take a gamble with people’s lives based on an incomplete analysis of a complex problem. If the gamble doesn’t work out, people will die. Literally. (11/end)