To be fair, my daughter told me that a couple years ago, the 8th grade boys vandalized a lot of the bathrooms, too.
Basically, some of these “TikTok challenges” are dumbass dares adolescents have been doing for -decades-
The “Devious Licks” have been heavy in my area. I don’t know why HS girls feel the need to do this
My wife said she never heard of the “Milk Crate Challenge”, then proceeded to talk about walking up a milk crate pyramid during college…
1 Like
we have been hit hard in our town too by the tik tok thing.
that said, a friend works on the custodial crew at the schools. once wondered aloud “I don’t even know why they put soap or paper towel dispensers in the middle school boys room.”
there’s the ordinary dumb adolescence. and then there is the extraordinary dumb adolescence juiced up by distant dares or shoutouts of “fame” or notoriety. no need to encourage the dumb stuff - it will happen on its own in due time.
4 Likes
Agree with ours. There were put in an unimaginable situation and have done as good as they can.
I am going to vote in my school board election for the 1st time ever this year. I think 3 of the 5 are running for re-election and I will be voting for them. For the other 2 slots I need to do a little research, but I know who I will not be voting for (the 3 candidates who are promoting “taking politics out of education” by being anti-mask and wanting to ban CRT).
3 Likes
School-linked COVID-19 outbreaks triple in Minnesota
Outbreaks in elementary schools where students aren’t eligible for vaccination, but also in high schools where students are eligible.
text
Coronavirus infections linked to Pre-K-12 students and staff continued to increase following the fall restart of classes — with 820 infections reported in the week ending Sept. 11 and a preliminary 859 reported in the week ending Sept. 18.
Thursday’s update from the Minnesota Department of Health also listed at least 95 pre-K-12 schools with COVID-19 outbreaks of five or more coronavirus infections in a two-week period.
The list of school outbreaks more than tripled from the 27 reported last week and includes Edison High School in Minneapolis, which shifted to remote learning because of a rise in infections this week. While expected with the return of in-person classes, the rise in outbreaks has put renewed pressure on school leaders as they consider mask requirements, quarantines or distance learning options to confront the pandemic.
The number of school-associated coronavirus infections the past two weeks almost doubles the totals reported in equivalent weeks last September.
While some schools on the state list experienced earlier outbreaks that have declined — and may no longer have ongoing coronavirus transmission — they are removed only if they have reported no new infections for 28 days. The outbreaks include students and staff who might have been exposed to the virus in other locations in their communities but were infectious while in their school buildings.
Odds of severe COVID-19 are much lower in children, but health officials remain concerned about the risks in students and their ability to carry and transmit the coronavirus to older people in their communities at greater risk. Minnesota remains in a fourth wave of a pandemic that has caused 8,049 COVID-19 deaths and 694,320 known infections, including 24 deaths and 2,434 infections reported Thursday.
At least 95 Minnesota Pre-K-12 schools have reported COVID-19 outbreaks of five or more infections in the past two weeks, the Minnesota Department of Health reports.
The single-day death total is one of the highest in months, including 22 deaths that occurred in September or August but also COVID-19 fatalities in December and January that were belatedly verified as linked to the pandemic. All 24 involved seniors — who have sustained 87% of Minnesota’s total COVID-19 deaths — except for one Nicollet County resident in the 45 to 49 age range.
The number of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota dipped slightly to 777 on Wednesday but remains above totals seen during the third pandemic wave this spring. Children’s Minnesota earlier this week reported 10 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 between its Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.
Health officials have encouraged continued COVID-19 vaccinations, especially in younger age groups with state data showing a first-dose rate of 53% in eligible people age 12 to 15, and 59% in eligible people age 16 to 17. Overall, more than 72% of Minnesota’s eligible population has received at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Thursday’s outbreak list included elementary schools in which students aren’t eligible for vaccine and high schools as well. The list of high schools with outbreaks includes Blaine, Chanhassen, Brainerd, Farmington, Albert Lea, Champlin Park, Maple Grove, Robbinsdale Cooper, Rogers, Wayzata, Cambridge-Isanti, Austin, Nicollet, Roseville, White Bear Lake, Jordan, Shakopee, Owatonna, Stillwater and Monticello.
Coronavirus infection numbers have risen on college campuses and other institutions of higher learning, but not as rapidly. The state on Thursday reported 142 infections linked to students and staffs, spread among 46 institutions of higher learning, in the week ending Sept. 11.
Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744
Jeremy Olson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering health care for the Star Tribune. Trained in investigative and computer-assisted reporting, Olson has covered politics, social services, and family issues.
tl;dr: “The number of school-associated coronavirus infections the past two weeks almost doubles the totals reported in equivalent weeks last September…At least 95 Minnesota Pre-K-12 schools have reported COVID-19 outbreaks of five or more infections in the past two weeks”
5 infections in a HS with 7 class periods. If the positive students don’t overlap, then we have 35 different class periods exposed. it adds up to a huge percent of the total school quickly. if the school vax rate is lowish, that’s a lot of potential quarantines.
1 Like
But they are not within 6 feet of all those other students for a minimum of 15 minutes…
And decent chance they DO overlap as one may have caught it from another.
Regardless, it’s insane that some schools aren’t having high schoolers wear masks.
1 Like
Interesting that the “Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter” failed to provide much if any context for any of the numbers in his article.
How many Pre-K-12 schools are in Minnesota?
How many Pre-K-12 students & staff?
This part seems a bit sketchy to me:
It seems designed to keep schools on this “outbreak” list much longer than they have active “outbreaks.” Not to mention the definition of outbreak can include completely unrelated cases over a 2 week period.
Let’s see… Based on these 2017-18 numbers
There are about 2062 schools, so 95 represents ~4.6% of schools, or about 1 in 22 that have had 5+ “cases” (aka positive tests, even if completely unrelated to school) in any 2 week period.
About 880k students + roughly 130k staff, so just over a million people, so the 860 cases reported last week was ~0.085% of those individuals.
The article also doesn’t indicate how many of those “cases” even had symptoms.
FTFY.
Agree that the multiplier I used did not bring in the 6 ft for 15 minutes. A much lower number after applying that and a presumed sensible seating chart. So cases for a closed bldg must be higher?
And yes, MN has about 880k students. Assume staff statewide is roughly 100k-120k, half of that teachers.
There is a report that comes.out every other year (supply/demand for teachers) that would have the student and teacher numbers.
The first one Google presented to me was for 2017-18, posted a couple posts up. Your estimates are very close to what was in that report.
I wouldn’t assume 6ft social distancing in schools – the CDC dropped their recommendation for schools down to 3 feet. Though I don’t think that was based on anything other than “we can’t fit all the kids back into classrooms if we keep it at 6 feet”. (That was certainly the case in my kids’ district.)
you are correct. that is where we are for now too. having toured the school on my kid’s open house (HS) there are a couple of kids per class that are close (3 feet) and the neighboring pod is 6ft+.
3 ft isn’t really based on anything (maybe something from Europe that said 1m is fine for kids?). Getting rid of 6’ is based on the acknowledgement of the primary mode of transmission being respiratory aerosols rather than droplets. The whole idea of 6’ or 3’ distance was based on the idea that your spittle when you talk, cough, or sneeze then drops to the floor within that range.
Now that everyone acknowledges aerosols, distance doesn’t really matter (nor do masks, especially cloth or surgical face coverings).
1 Like
They do? Did you post a study on surgical masks and aerosols?
I can’t remember if we talked about this or not.
It seems that everyone is still recommending masks from what I can tell…
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-covid-aerosol-mask-idUSL1N2PJ0T5
1 Like
It’s cute you think you can change Marcie’s mind.
1 Like
I’d rate that “fact check” misleading. It links to studies based on dummy heads & a CDC chart that backs up that cloth & paper masks don’t do anything for aerosols.
For aerosols, the real experts (industrial hygienists) don’t recommend anything less than a fitted respirator. In this video, Stephen Petty explains why:
As for “source control”, with all due respect to Stylist A, your mask is not source control: https://rationalground.com/masks-are-not-source-control/
This doesn’t make any sense to me, unless the virus is infinitely infectious, ie any infinitesimal amount will infect you.
In that case, maybe the aerosols become evenly distributed throughout a room very quickly. And any amount of that air will get you sick. In that case, sure, masks and distance don’t matter.
But in reality the concentration of particles coming from somebody’s mouth is going to spread out like 1/r to 1/r^2 as they talk. Being closer will expose you to many more particles.
Similarly, masks will catch some of the moisture and reduce overall virus levels in the room due to people exhaling, and maybe catch some larger droplets for people inhaling.
And if it can spread by aerosols then it just also be able to be spread by droplets.
So it seems like the reality must be that different processes contribute to spread in different ways, in different amounts, and at different times. These absolute statements about masks mattering or not, and distance mattering or not, seem like category mistakes. It is not that they stop, or do not stop, infection, as implied by your statement. Rather they interfere with spread to some degree.
2 Likes