Coronavirus has started to spread around quick, cases are rising every week. Many universities and schools have decided to cancel school due to concerns about students' health. Major events such as the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago, March Madness, and the NBA, have either canceled their events or postponed them until further notice. The canceling of these major events and schools should be a sign that CPS should cancel school.

I am a student at Lane Tech High School. We recently received an email that any event with over 50 people should be suspended (sports events, assemblies, etc); every extracurricular activity is canceled. Our student body consists of about 4,500 kids. Considering staff and teachers, there are about 5,000 people in the building daily. I probably come in contact with roughly 600 kids a day: passing period, entering and exiting the building, public transport, etc. Students come in contact with hundreds of other students every single day and school is not even considered to be canceled, yet an event with over 50 people should be canceled. Viruses like these can spread very easily if a sick person goes around touching things and contaminating them. In school, it is especially easy for a virus to spread quickly as everyone is in much closer contact with one another and could possibly touch things the sick person has touched. 

Education is important, but students' health is far more important. By not canceling school, so many kids are being put at a high risk of catching COVID-19. Coronavirus might not be as deadly with teenagers, but kids with respiratory issues have a lower survival rate since COVID-19 effects the respiratory system. If one kid in an entire school has the virus, many more kids would catch it. This sick student walks around the halls, bumping into people, contaminating the air, the desks, anything they touch. Even if 100 kids had coronavirus out of 4,500, this is still a large number of people affected.  These sick kids could even contaminate people outside of school. People over the age of 60 have a low chance of survival if they catch COVID-19.

CPS should cancel school. Coronavirus is an easily spreadable virus that could affect a number of people. Students' health is much more important than their education.