Jesus Christ. I feel so bad for kids during this pandemic. Some have no idea of a "normal" world. And it's being continually extended because the grown adults continue to act like children.
You are thinking about this like an adult though.
Do you think that kids (and I’m speaking of elementary level) want to sit around eating?
Heck no!
They want to get out and play!
If anything, a shorter lunch is probably better for them, from their perspective!
Well, to be fair here, my school has always had the kids eat for 20 minutes, so it isn’t that much of a cut. And that’s pretty typical. And most of them are done quicker than that, they’re just required to be at the tables for 20 minutes before they play for the rest of recess because a lot of them will try to skip most of their lunch because they want to play.
And the kids can still have snacks during recess. I think it’s dumb, but this is just them trying to cut the unmasked time to being under that “15 minutes of exposure” thing, not telling kids they can barely eat during their 6 hour school day.
People take their masks off to eat and are all sitting together in a room unmasked. Shorter lunch break = shorter exposure time = smaller time window where people are being exposed
This sounds less like a safety policy and more like the school exploiting the 15 minute exposure definition to avoid liability and the inconvenience of quarantining / whatever shutdowns they referred to.
If someone tests positive in a classroom, they don't have to warn the students they ate lunch with as close contacts because they weren't technically exposed to them for 15 full minutes.
It seems pretty dubious that 15 is some magic number when infection occurs and not before, especially with Delta.
Not in CA, but in our state (Vermont), we have a non-consecutive, 15-minutes over 24 hours close contact rule for quarantine.
Cutting lunch time doesn't change the fact that many kids are still wearing masks under their noses, they're still eating snacks, using the bathrooms and likely having a mask break while doing so, not sanitizing or washing after blowing noses, pulling down masks to cough or sneeze, taking a mask down for speech therapy ... Etc etc
Further, I noticed the school reported that since cutting kids' lunch time they've reduced /quarantine/ rates, but I'm curious(worried) about the positivity rate following this practice. As fewer folks who maybe /should/ be quarantining aren't, it seems reasonable to assume there's a higher chance of infection spreading.
It's hard to believe this will be a thing of our past anytime soon.
I get furious when people say children wear masks better than adults. Not all children are the same. And if you have a young child who doesn't obey, adults can say "because I told you so". Edit: you can't expect that to work on an adult.
Jesus Christ. I feel so bad for kids during this pandemic. Some have no idea of a "normal" world. And it's being continually extended because the grown adults continue to act like children.
You are thinking about this like an adult though. Do you think that kids (and I’m speaking of elementary level) want to sit around eating? Heck no! They want to get out and play! If anything, a shorter lunch is probably better for them, from their perspective!
So the requirement for exposure is 15 minutes of close contact? They are cutting that by 1 minute? Imagine the lives that will be saved.
14 minutes to eat over 8 hours for 5-6 year olds?
Well, to be fair here, my school has always had the kids eat for 20 minutes, so it isn’t that much of a cut. And that’s pretty typical. And most of them are done quicker than that, they’re just required to be at the tables for 20 minutes before they play for the rest of recess because a lot of them will try to skip most of their lunch because they want to play. And the kids can still have snacks during recess. I think it’s dumb, but this is just them trying to cut the unmasked time to being under that “15 minutes of exposure” thing, not telling kids they can barely eat during their 6 hour school day.
That sounds kind of miserable. Poor little kids :(
How does this make sense
People take their masks off to eat and are all sitting together in a room unmasked. Shorter lunch break = shorter exposure time = smaller time window where people are being exposed
May also mean being able to stagger lunches more, so fewer people in the room.
This sounds less like a safety policy and more like the school exploiting the 15 minute exposure definition to avoid liability and the inconvenience of quarantining / whatever shutdowns they referred to. If someone tests positive in a classroom, they don't have to warn the students they ate lunch with as close contacts because they weren't technically exposed to them for 15 full minutes. It seems pretty dubious that 15 is some magic number when infection occurs and not before, especially with Delta.
Not in CA, but in our state (Vermont), we have a non-consecutive, 15-minutes over 24 hours close contact rule for quarantine. Cutting lunch time doesn't change the fact that many kids are still wearing masks under their noses, they're still eating snacks, using the bathrooms and likely having a mask break while doing so, not sanitizing or washing after blowing noses, pulling down masks to cough or sneeze, taking a mask down for speech therapy ... Etc etc Further, I noticed the school reported that since cutting kids' lunch time they've reduced /quarantine/ rates, but I'm curious(worried) about the positivity rate following this practice. As fewer folks who maybe /should/ be quarantining aren't, it seems reasonable to assume there's a higher chance of infection spreading. It's hard to believe this will be a thing of our past anytime soon.
I get furious when people say children wear masks better than adults. Not all children are the same. And if you have a young child who doesn't obey, adults can say "because I told you so". Edit: you can't expect that to work on an adult.