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As many are aware, I drive a school bus. I have been in classrooms on occasion and have interacted with a variety of children in all age groups.

Children in lower grades, and many of the young adults in high school have a different perception of what is important. The potential harm that can be caused during a pandemic, if they fail to follow the rules regarding masks and social distancing, won’t be a top priority for them.

While schools will do their best to keep children and staff safe during in-school hours, they will not be able to prevent the intermingling and social activities of children when they are not in school.

Some students, hearing their parents talk of the false “deep state” conspiracy of the pandemic, or Covid-19 being little more than a “regular” flu, won’t take the need for caution seriously.

Even with the pandemic numbers rising again, people are entering stores and businesses, often with kids in tow, not wearing masks. Apparently, entire families have asthma. These kids have had all summer being trained that wearing a mask isn’t important.

Nobody will prevent high school students from gathering in groups, or those who think they are in love from kissing and hugging one another.

While Covid-19 appears to have altered slightly, with younger people now testing positive in greater numbers, it is still the elderly most at risk for serious health problems and death.

Children are the virus incubators, often asymptomatic. Older adults are the common victims that end up on respirators, ventilators, or dead.

Shortly after schools first closed back in March, I made the prediction that they would not re-open.

Now, I’m going to make another prediction, should they re-open for the new school year of 2020-2021.

They won’t remain open more than a month.

Why?

Because somebody will test positive for Covid-19 and that will cause the dominoes to fall.

Probably one of the easiest areas for contact tracing will be the schools. If the CDC guidelines, regarding those who came in contact with an infected individual are followed, one infection could result in classmates and staff sent home to quarantine for 10 days.

That means every teacher, any teacher aid, the bus driver, any bus monitor, and classmates who came in contact with the student. The classroom itself would require a deep cleaning, as would the restrooms, or other areas they visited during the school day.

If they have siblings at home, they too would require 10 days out of the school they attend.

If it is a staff member who tests positive, every student and fellow staff member they had contact with would be required to self-quarantine for 10 days.

Just one positive case has the potential of shutting down a school, or creating a lack of available staff to teach, or transport students.

The schools will likely open, if their intent is to simply show the state they made an effort to qualify for federal funding Trump is threatening to withhold, but I don’t see them remaining open for long.

I hope I’m wrong.

Nothing would please me more than to see life get back to normal, especially for the kids.

If they open, I’ll be driving. I’m used to dealing with a scourge on society. I’ve been dealing with one in West Easton for 8 years.

UPDATE 7/24: An indication of what may occur in the 5 weeks until schools are scheduled to re-open, Allentown School District announced last night they will be teaching remotely (online only) for the first semester. Allentown is in Lehigh County, bordering Northampton County.