Some parents of students attending Fairfax County Public Schools are demanding more answers as to why high school sports are allowed to be played while most students cannot be taught in-person because of the coronavirus pandemic.
High school athletes began winter sports practices this week after the school system had paused its plan to return thousands of students to classrooms over COVID-19 worries.
Parents Joe and Marisa Wells sent an email Tuesday to schools Superintendent Scott S. Braband and the school board asking them to explain the reasoning behind the decision.
“Have fun at the first basketball game on 21 December while my elementary school students suffer,” the couple wrote.
Mr. Wells said Tuesday’s email is one of several he has sent in recent months to school officials questioning back-to-school plans, all of which have gone unanswered.
“I’m persistent because I see my kids suffering,” he said Tuesday during a phone interview.
FCPS spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell told The Washington Times that the school system’s decision to participate in the Virginia High School League (VHSL) athletic season was based on the league’s guidelines and “the data and our experiences with student athletes” over the summer.
“We have had students engaging in out-of-season athletic workouts and sports-related activities since June 23, with less than 0.2% of students having been exposed to COVID-19,” Ms. Caldwell said Wednesday in an email. “Of those, none were transmissions from school-related workouts.”
FCPS used “robust mitigation procedures” and will continue to do so while monitoring health metrics daily throughout the season, she said.
Moreover, officials will adapt to any new guidance from VHSL or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which rank “team-based practice” as an “increasing risk” for virus spread and “full competition between teams from the same local geographic area” as “even more risk.”
“Returning all of our students to in-person instruction remains our ultimate goal,” Ms. Caldwell said.
In mid-November, an uptick in virus cases prompted the school system to pause its phased return plan, which would gradually bring groups of students back into classrooms. One group of special education students had to go back to virtual learning, while two others made up of elementary students were unable to return to in-person instruction. Most students are tentatively scheduled to return next year.
Mr. Braband said in a message on the schools’ website that “rising cases” in the county caused “core health indicators” to exceed “a threshold based on guidance from the [CDC].”
When core indicators remain at the “highest risk” level for seven days in a row, “students will temporarily return to all virtual instruction,” he said.
Mr. Braband is set to meet Thursday with the school board to discuss the return plan.
FCPS, Virginia’s largest school system, serves more than 188,000 students and is one of 315 schools in VHSL. The league’s board members voted to postpone fall sports but allow winter sports to start in December.
VHSL’s sports-specific guidelines include capacity limits, as well as social distancing and mask rules.
Alexandria City Public Schools, which is using all online learning, decided in mid-November to cancel winter sports for high schoolers.
ACPS Superintendent Gregory C. Hutchings Jr. said in a video that the VHSL guidelines “are not aligned with the CDC guidelines and the guidelines we’re following with ACPS to provide a productive in-person learning experience.”
Arlington Public Schools also decided in November to cancel the high school winter sports season because it did not coincide with the return plan, Superintendent Francisco Duran said. He changed his mind, however, and walked back the decision amid public outcry to let student athletes play.
The school system allowed special education students to return in-person last month, but has halted until next year plans to allow other students to return.
Meanwhile, Montgomery County Public Schools did not join other schools across Maryland this week in allowing athletes to begin the winter sports season. MCPS officials, who are providing online only instruction, cited a surge in cases throughout the community.
And D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday prohibited high-contact sports in the city, but is allowing children who are middle school-aged and younger to engage in drills and clinics with certain rules.
Since November, the District’s public schools have been phasing elementary children into Canvas Academics and Real Engagement (CARE) classrooms, where they learn online under adult supervision.
