Montgomery County Public Schools just announced they are closing 11 schools because of inflated COVID concerns that are not consistent with CDC standards. MCPS is putting the needs of our children last and closing schools when they should be doing everything they can to keep them open. Closing schools and moving to virtual learnings is far more harmful to children than subjected a largely vaccinated population to the risk of contracting Covid-19.

Sign this petition now to urge Montgomery County to keep schools open and to change their unscientific and outdated school-closure policy. 

Montgomery County enjoys one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. So why are we closing are schools if the CDC says we don't need to quarantine if we're vaccinated and, as the New York Times reports,
"severe cases of COVID, including long Covid, are extremely rate in children"?

Consider this:

The New York Times reported on Jan. 4, 2022 about the "alarming" effects of the pandemic on schoolchildren, concluding that "American children are starting 2022 in crisis" and stating that "[f]or the past two years, Americans have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults." 

The article, called "No Way to Grow Up" noted that:

• "Severe versions of Covid, including long Covid, are extremely rare in children. For them, the virus resembles a typical flu. Children face more risk from car rides than Covid."
• Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute said "We haven't seen this kind of academic achievement crisis in living memory."
• "Children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic [when most in MoCo were enrolled in virtual learning] and have not caught up."
• Many children and teenagers are experience mental health problems, aggravated by the isolation and disruption of the pandemic. Three medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recently declared a national state of emergency in children's mental health."
• "Suicide attempts have risen...sharply [51%] among adolescent girls."
• "Many schools have still not returned to normal, worsening learning loss and social isolation."
• "Behavior problems have increased."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/briefing/american-children-crisis-pandemic.html

Meanwhile, Montgomery County is clearly not following CDC guidance which states According to the CDC: "Someone who has been fully vaccinated and shows no symptoms of COVID-19 does not need to quarantine." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html 

95% of Montgomery County's teachers have been vaccinated. https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-county-schools-back-off-on-threat-to-terminate-unvaccinated-employees

Most of the general population of Montgomery County has sky-high vaccination rates. As of October 2021, 99% of the population of Montgomery County 12 and up were vaccinated. Since then, the vaccine has been made available to children 5 and older, and data show that somewhere between 70-86% of the general population are fully vaccinated. And those numbers get higher every day. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/case-counts.html#vaccine-zip  

Montgomery County Public Schools is following an outdated standard they set early in the pandemic that if 5% of a school tested positive for COVID, they would shut down the school and move to virtual learning. Nobody disputes the idea that if children or staff are sick they should stay home, but if the vast majority of our student and teacher population are vaccinated, there is no need to shut down the schools. As the CDC guidance clearly states, vaccinated individuals who are exposed to COVID 19 do NOT need to quarantine or isolate themselves. And, as a precaution, the schools already employ a whole host of techniques to prevent spread of disease including masking.

Sign this petition now to insist that MCPS immediately reverse their harmful school closure policy which actively harms children and is unnecessary to protect students and teachers.