Evanston Township High School is currently not allowing for remote instruction even though the number of COVID cases in Evanston has reached extremely concerning levels.  Locally and statewide, ICU’s are running over 90% full; in other states, hospitals are so full that people are dying of non-covid problems in emergency rooms because they cannot get access to a hospital bed. Despite these worrisome numbers, it is not clear that the peak has been reached.

We know that implementing a multitude of strategies can suppress transmission. These include:

• full vaccination, including boosters
• effective masks (ie, surgical or better) used properly and  continuously
• isolation or, at least, physical separation
• excellent ventilation of indoor spaces
• testing prior to indoor events

ETHS is not capable of fully enforcing any of these strategies. Current ETHS policy is placing students and their families at risk. And students' families can include younger siblings not old enough to be vaccinated and others that may be medically compromised or taking immuno-suppressant medications. Moreover, there will be students who are vaccinated but remain at greater risk of serious after effects.

We can no longer claim ignorance of the risks of covid infection. The known risks include:

• increased occurrence of diabetes in children and teens 18 months later
• long term decrease in physical performance
• long term presence of virus in brain and heart
• other forms of long-covid (including constant fatigue and loss of taste and smell)
• hospitalization
• need for mechanical ventilation/breathing (and associated risks such as ventilator-acquired pneumonia)
• death 

ETHS should not be forcing students and their families to accept these risks, as well as not yet known risks. We demand that ETHS, at a minimum, offer the option to students of remote access to the in-person classes being held. This could include recording the class and making the recording available, using a Zoom or another platform to livestream the class. We believe that doing anything less is both immoral and dangerous as it forces families to choose between their health and their child’s education.