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Education Mar 03, 2021
A typical classroom set-up at Burbank Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Once on-campus learning resumes, all of the LAUSD campuses will have similar classroom distancing. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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By Linh Tat
About 200 healthcare professionals throughout Los Angeles County have joined a growing chorus of voices calling for schools to reopen, saying that there are ways for students and staff to return to campus safely while stressing the physical, mental and emotional harm of keeping students out of school.
In what they called an open letter to school district officials and teachers unions, the group of healthcare providers said on Thursday, Feb. 4, that the nearly yearlong school closures have resulted in social isolation that has taken a toll on the mental health of young children and adolescents, including increased thoughts of suicides, and that studies have shown that school sites aren’t super spreaders of the coronavirus.
While they acknowledged that opening schools could result in some spread of the virus, they said case increases would be “modest” and that evidence shows the benefits would outweigh potential impacts. “As pediatricians, internists, neurologists, infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, psychiatrists, and other healthcare professionals, we strongly […]
