The real reason schools close over coronavirus concerns isn’t about students

Schools are closing every day due to the coronavirus, but not to protect the students.

Updated school closures in the Puget Sound region

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Celine Gounder tells KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show that children haven’t actually gotten severely sick from the virus. That being so, there’s a different, important reason schools are closing anyway.

“The reason to close schools is actually not to protect kids,” she noted. “Kids are not the ones at risk — the reason to close schools is to protect adults.”

“Kids bringing coronavirus home to their mom maybe, who recently had breast cancer and has had chemotherapy,” Dr. Gounder continued. “Or Grandpa, who is older and in his eighties. That’s why you close schools.”

To that end, Gounder doesn’t actually recommend full closures of schools. Rather, she says a sort of “hybrid option” would be the best approach.

“Maybe in some instances, you don’t fully close the schools,” she described. “You allow whoever wants to come in to come in, and then maybe offer some remote options for kids who want to stay home and whose parents can have them stay home, and they may be doing web-based or remote kind of teaching.”

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That’s a measure she notes would be helpful especially for lower-income families, who often rely on reduced costs for school lunches, or with parents who can’t afford to take time off from work.

“If you are going to shut down the school completely, helping those parents and families with the added burden that’s going to create is really important,” said Dr. Gounder.

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.