Last night, Dr. McGown held the KISD State of the District address and Q&A. Our question was asked, so I want to thank those who asked on the student's behalf about a reconsideration of the doctor's note issue for exemptions. Here is a link to the Question and Dr. McGown's answer.
You should all go check out the full video on the Klein ISD webpage, there was a lot of good information and cheerleading for KISD.
Dr. McGown's comment was basically that they'll talk about the policy and see if they want/need to make changes, then disseminate the changes down to the students through the principals in the next few weeks. This is good and bad.
The Good: The fact that the issue is on the district's radar now is great, and it proves that our voice is being heard.
The Bad: Waiting two to three weeks to hear a decision is not optimal. Sure, the decision may be to change the policy to not count doctors excused absences against the students. It could also be, as I was told after the October break, "We aren't going to entertain changing the policy." Due to this being a 50/50 chance of going our way, I will not stop speaking out about this overly restrictive policy, nor will I pause the petition for the change.
Say it takes 3 weeks for them to tell the students that they are not going to change the policy. Then it the Thanksgiving break, rolling right into the Christmas/New Year's break. At that point, those students who are in single semester classes are already having to sit for their finals, being "punished" for something that we have been conditioned to do when we are sick across the past 3-4 years...stay home, go to the doctor, don't spread germs. Yep... good old social distancing. Not to mention, with cold & flu season bearing down on us Texans (CDC Flu Map), we need to make sure our students are being taken care of and taking care of each other. To pause the petition would then set us back multiple weeks, risking even further delays to getting a policy changed that quite frankly is common sense.
If you see spirit nights and decide to attend, we ask that you speak to the parents there and direct them to the petition so we can gain further exposure.
I want to thank everyone again for helping spread the word and for taking a stand for the students of Klein ISD.