Children Can't Follow Social Distance Guidelines

"Kids will also be expected to refrain from many once-normal activities—hugging, sharing toys, trading food at lunchtime, and so on. K–12 students may generally be capable of doing what public-health experts ask, but not all of them, not everything, and not all the time," The Atlantic reports. Add to this the fact that many of these students have not seen their classmates in person for six or more months and the confluence of circumstances makes for a dire situation. Most children can follow the rules, most of the time. But, there will never be enough compliance to keep teachers and staff safe from the virus. While children under 10 are not particularly at risk of getting coronavirus themselves, the research is still not confirmed about how they act as spreaders of the virus. While preschool to young elementary age kids are thought to be the least careful with hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a mask, older kids may want to rebel and not follow the rules for their own reasons, or they may simply not understand the risk they pose to themselves, the adults who work at their school. or their own families. Reopening schools too early also means near-constant monitoring of kids, even older ones, because it's just in their nature to break the rules when they think adults are not closely watching them. With teacher and staff cuts in many school districts, this may prove impossible in low-income areas already ravaged by the pandemic. There is also the issue of different levels of compliance to pandemic measures in these students' homes. Parents who were stricter about following social distancing guidelines, sanitation, hand washing, and wearing masks are likely to mimic those behaviors when they get to school but not all children's families will have these potentially life-saving habits. If these children don't get tested, they could come to school as asymptomatic carriers of the virus.