BOSTON (WHDH) - Students in Massachusetts’ largest school district are set to head back to the classroom Thursday amid COVID-19 concerns.
Boston Public Schools parents and guardians were able to voice their worries to Superintendent Brenda Cassellius during a virtual back to school meeting held Tuesday.
“Can you 2,000 billion, gazillion percent promise me my child will not contract COVID while in school?” one parent asked. “That’s what I’m petrified of.”
The return to the classroom comes as national health leaders sounded the alarm over a surge in coronavirus cases among children.
More than 250,000 child cases were reported in the United States last week, which accounts for more than a quarter of the total number.
“We have taken every measure possible to try to mitigate all of the spread that we possibly can but we are living with COVID,” Cassellius said.
Those measures include requiring masks indoors, holding vaccine clinics at several schools for children 12 years and older, improving air quality, and frequent COVID-19 testing.
These are steps that national health leaders have been recommending to get children back to in-person learning.
“So that we don’t have another year of disrupted learning,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “Students suffered enough. It’s time to make sure we do everything we need to do to focus on our students being in the classroom safely.”
A meeting is scheduled for Thursday for school leaders district-wide on how to properly report positive coronavirus cases to make sure everything is tracked and monitored.
Boston Public Schools students in grades first through 12th will begin their school year Thursday, while preschool and kindergarten students start Monday.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)