Opinion: In trying times, put students’ needs first
March 18, 2020
By PAULA HERBART/President – Michigan Education Association
With the closure of schools due to the coronavirus outbreak, parents are faced with many challenges over the coming weeks. While I can’t hope to solve all of them, I can provide my expertise as an educator to help weather this crisis and provide advice and resources for parents to keep their students on a good path while at home.
First and foremost, we must take this crisis seriously and slow the spread of COVID-19 — which is why MEA fully supports the order to close schools and asks everyone of every age to fully heed the expertise of public health officials. Attention to cleanliness and sanitization mixed with social distancing is the key to slowing this outbreak and ending this crisis.
As jarring as this is for us as adults, we also must remember that this situation can be even scarier for a 10-year-old. The changes we’re all facing have been swift to put it mildly, and our students had little to no time to process this with their teachers and other educators they’ve worked with all year.
I think that teachers and school staffs should be paid during the time of school closures during the crisis.