2D ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY E3 K1 NEWS
It very well could be that Disney
World was packed Sunday because ev-
eryone knew it closed Monday.
Businesses are looking out for their
bottom line, too, and in the last week
have actually encouraged customers to
stop by, government recommendations
be damned. But that might not last long.
Late Sunday and early Monday, gover-
nors and mayors from all over the coun-
try started closing bars, restaurants and
gyms.
When he announced that bars and
restaurants would close, Illinois Gov. JB
Pritzker implied that people weren’t
great at making their own decisions.
“The time for persuasion and public
appeal is over. The time for action is
here,” he said, less than 24 hours after
thousands of Chicagoans packed into
bars to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Government officials hope that social
distancing allows America to slow the
spread and “flatten the curve,” a term
being used to explain how the country
wants to stretch out confirmed cases in-
stead of bunching them together and
overwhelming the health care system.
For her part, Mohr is optimistic this
crisis could actually serve as a reminder“Some people think, ‘OK, no school, let’s
have a play date!’ Well, that’s not social
distancing.” Mixed messages from state
and federal governments add to confu-
sion, allowing individuals to pick who
they want to listen to, he said.
Second, Gurung pointed to an overall
feeling in America of invincibility and
invulnerability, a “we are so strong, we
are so untouchable” attitude that tends
to permeate the entire country, espe-
cially during a crisis.
Third, he said, is directly related to
coping.
“By virtue of not following all these
prescriptions, it’s easy to believe that
everything is normal and you’re going to
be fine,” Gurung said. “If you start prac-
ticing social distancing – which we real-
ly need to call physical distancing so
people better understand the concept –
it highlights the fact that, oh my gosh,
this is a dangerous time.”
For some people, he said, it’s just eas-
ier to keep the fear at bay – especially
when you’re downing mimosas and tak-
ing group selfies.
Millennials, in particular, have drawn
criticism for flocking to their regular
nightlife, undoubtedly because the vi-
rus is not thought to be lethal for most
people younger than 60. But there are
also plenty of Baby Boomers refusing to
cancel their plans, which Mohr said is
likely because of a “been here, done
that” attitude when it comes to surviv-
ing other global crises.
Then there’s the “last gasp of free-
dom” factor, Mohr said, pointing to how
some people will react to news of a po-
tential quarantine by going all-out be-
fore they’re ordered inside by govern-
ment leaders.calling those people selfish, to sup-
porters who have tweeted and com-
mented that coronavirus won’t stop
America.
“It’s bizarre, isn’t it?” said Cynthia
Mohr, a professor of psychology at Port-
land State University and an associate
editor at the Journal of Social and Clin-
ical Psychology. She likened it to the
well-known children’s tale, “The Boy
Who Cried Wolf.”
“I think a big piece of it is, we’ve had
other health scares, and they’ve been
bad but not catastrophic,” Mohr said.
“We heard so much about SARS and
H1N1, but we seemed to be OK. So expe-
rience-wise, people are thinking, ‘Oh,
we’ll be fine here now, too.’ ”
Mohr and other psychology profes-
sionals say that’s a natural, under-
standable reaction – but it doesn’t mean
it’s an accurate one. The numbers – not
to mention the horror stories coming out
of other first-world countries, like Italy
- imply this virus could be much worse,
especially if people all over the country
don’t start taking the threat seriously,
and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Regan Gurung, the director of Oregon
State University’s psychology program
and an expert in social psychology, said
there are three factors at play in Amer-
icans’ decision to ignore CDC recom-
mendations.
First, Gurung said, there’s a lack of
information about both the virus and
what “social distancing” actually is.
“It conjures up ideas,” he explained.
to people that being individual-focused
doesn’t lead to success for society at
large.
“There’s this attitude right now
about, ‘Well I’m OK, and if I feel sick I
just won’t go out,’ ” she said.
“This is a situation where we need to
change our behavior according not to
what’s good for us, but what’s good for
our region and the whole population.
That’s not the way we’re raised in Amer-
ica.
“But I’m hopeful this can remind us
that we are all, in fact, connected.”
Of course, while medical profession-
als everywhere stress the importance of
physical distance, they also recognize
how crucial social interactions are for
everyone.
Before his gym shut down Monday,
Dr. Robert Glatter, an ER physician at
Lenox Hill Hospital in New York who
also works as a network physician for
US Soccer, was still working out there
regularly, cognizant of taking care of his
mental, physical and emotional health.
It’s critical to stay in shape right now,
he said, especially because so many
doctors will be focused on patients who
test positive for the virus. But staying
health is possible even without people
right next to you.
“We’re all going to need to get cre-
ative and think outside the box when it
comes to regular social activities, like
working out,” Glatter said.
“What we have to remember is that
social distancing is not social isolation.
You can still use technology – use
FaceTime, text, teleconference. You
need to interact with people, absolutely.
But there are lots of different ways to in-
teract and still be safe.”Social
Continued from Page 1D
“Some people think,
‘OK, no school, let’s have
a play date!’ Well, that’s
not social distancing.”
Regan Gurung
Director, Oregon State University
psychology program“How will the courts provide no-
tices?” she said. “There is no feasible
way for the courts to notify MPP mi-
grants of postponed hearings.”
Taylor Levy, an El Paso-based im-
migration attorney, spent Monday
morning explaining to migrants in Ciu-
dad Juarez, Mexico, that their court
hearings probably will be postponed
because of coronavirus concerns.
Many of her clients had been waiting
months for their hearing and a chance
to exit the program that has kept them
in some of the most dangerous cities in
Mexico.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
Many of the shelters in Juarez have
standing water on the floor, no soap in
the bathrooms and muddy courtyards- ideal environments for the coronavi-
rus to take hold, Levy said. About 1,500
migrants are scattered around Juarez,
she said.
“My biggest concern is that people
are going to start dying,” Levy said.
“The conditions are abysmal here.”
At the Matamoros camp, where mi-
grants have been living in squalid, out-
door conditions for months, volun-
teers have been educating migrants on
the virus and installing new outdoor
sinks where they can wash their
hands.
Cindy Candia said her group, Angry
Tias and Abuelas, has been stockpiling
boxes of hand sanitizers and bleach for
the migrants along with the usual sup-
ply of rice and beans. They’ve post-
poned any group meetings at the camp
and are stressing to everyone the im-
portance of washing their hands.
“We are taking precautions,” she
said. “Hopefully, nothing happens.”
Perry, the health care director, is
less optimistic. After a meeting with
local Mexican health officials, she
learned that Matamoros has only 40
critical-care beds and 10 ventilators for
a city of 450,000.
Even if there was greater capacity,
the migrants in the camps, most of
whom are from Central America, may
not have access to them, she said.
Since they began operations there in
October, Perry and her group of volun-
teers have sent nearly 100 migrants to
local hospitals for ailments ranging
from heart attacks to ruptured appen-
dixes. Only one was admitted, and the
rest were turned away, she said.
The group, which relies mostly on
private donations, has raised about
$350,000 of the $500,000 needed to
open the field hospital, she said.
About half of the cases they see at
the camp are respiratory-related, in-
cluding pneumonia and influenza,
Perry said. There are also currently 60
pregnant women in the camp. A coro-
navirus outbreak would be devastat-
ing and impossible to control, she said.
“Ultimately, there’s only so much
you can do when 2,500 people are liv-
ing in a space the size of two football
fields,” Perry said.
Migrants
Continued from Page 1Dhold synchronous classes, meaning all
students are online at the same time so
students can see each other and feel less
isolated.
“The teacher might say, ‘OK, you’ve
read this article, work in a team on the
following prompt and activity,’ ” Belcher
said.E-learning in large districts
takes more planningOnline learning can work in larger
districts, but it takes more planning –
and challenges remain.
The Northshore School District north
of Kirkland, Washington, enrolls more
than 25,000 students and started virtu-
al classes last week.
Because of the acute outbreak in the
state, Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid
knew she and her staff needed to act
quickly. They spent a weekend planning
for what online learning needed to look
like.
The next week, the district canceled
class for a day so teachers could learn
how to teach online modules. They used
Google classroom, Microsoft Teams and
Seesaw, an online learning platform for
younger students.
The district also provided 4,000 low-
income students with computing de-
vices. T-Mobile supplied low-income
families with mobile hotspot devices for
internet access, Reid said.
But now, Reid said Monday, the dis-
trict has paused the experiment be-
cause it might put its schools in jeopar-
dy of losing money under state and fed-
eral rules and regulations.
Schools are required to provide in-
struction equitably. Parents had raised
concerns about difficulties children
with disabilities, many of whom usually
have paraeducators helping them atThat means, ready or not, schools will
have to try to figure out online education.
“This is a whole new world around
online learning, even for very sophisti-
cated districts,” said Keith Krueger, the
CEO of the Consortium for School
Networking, a nonprofit that connects
technology officers at schools.
Online learning is easier for middle
and high school students, who are more
independent, Krueger said. Plus, many
elementary students don’t have a ded-
icated device for online learning.
“At the lowest grades, (online learn-
ing) is probably never going to work,” he
added.
Also, Krueger said, only about half of
districts report they can provide a lap-
top for every child. That means students
who either don’t own a device on which
to do schoolwork, or who don’t have ac-
cess to broadband internet, will be sig-
nificantly disadvantaged.
These schools are already
learning online
Some schools and districts are ahead
of the curve. And they have elegantly –
if not painfully — pivoted to a new ex-
tended reality of online schooling.
“The first two weeks were brutal,” said
Mindy Rose, the director of college coun-
seling at Shanghai American School, an
international school in China, where her
two children are also enrolled. The school
shifted to distance learning on Feb. 3,
when the coronavirus outbreak prompted
schools to close in China.
Rose came back to the States with her
children, while her husband, who works
for Disney, stayed behind in Shanghai.
Now Rose and her kids have been
working, learning and living like no-
mads across America, renting Airbnb
units and visiting colleges where Rose
has contacts. Her children log on each
day for their online studies, and Rose
continues counseling Shanghai Ameri-
can School students remotely.
“Week one here is week seven for us,”
Rose said.
The Shanghai school uses Zoom, a
videoconferencing platform, to connect
students and teachers. Zoom has ex-
tended free accounts to K-12 schools
since the virus outbreak.
Some individual schools in Washing-
ton state, the original U.S. epicenter of
the virus outbreak, pivoted to online
learning last week.
One is The Downtown School, a pri-
vate independent school in Seattle that
shifted to virtual classes last week until
at least April 24. The school had used e-
learning for snow days before; now stu-
dents and teachers participate daily in
classes via Zoom. The school day runs
from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., said Sue
Belcher, head of school.
Last week, the school even held a vir-
tual “assembly” via a live webinar, which
featured a speaker who talked about the
science behind the coronavirus.
Belcher said she likes teachers to
school, were having with the online
program, according to a GeekWire re-
port. The school also cited concerns
about English language learners.
The reason given was the district’s
inability to provide equitable services
to all students. While the Northshore
announcement didn’t specify the na-
ture of the inequities, a few areas were
listed, including special education and
English language learning services, as
well as food and child care.
“Here in Northshore, while we have
been able to mitigate several of these
challenges, we have not yet been able
to mitigate all of them and meet the
strict guidelines outlined in federal
and state regulations,” said Reid.
Students are working on individual
projects this week instead, she said.
Other districts don’t appear to have
made a plan at all for distance learning.
Ashley Dohmann, a 36-year-old
teacher and mother near Dallas en-
tered the first day of spring break with
her two kids at home Monday. Her dis-
trict, she said, has not announced
what teachers and students are sup-
posed to do after this week.
As of Monday morning, Dohmann
was already running out of ways to keep
her two young children quiet while her
husband, a software engineer, worked
from home. A painting project occupied
them for a total of 10 minutes.
“I don’t know what online instruction
is going to look like,” Dohmann said. “It
would be easier if they would make a de-
cision so we can get prepared.”
Contributing: Lily Altavena, The Ar-
izona Republic
Education coverage at USA TODAY
is made possible in part by a grant
from the Bill & Melinda Gates Founda-
tion. The Gates Foundation does not
provide editorial input.Schools
Continued from Page 1D
First graders practice using the app Canvas to submit class assignments at
Avery Elementary School in Hilliard, Ohio. JOSHUA A. BICKEL/USA TODAY NETWORK