San Diego Pediatrician Calls for Local Schools to Reopen
Amid the pandemic, youth mental struggles have become increasingly apparent to pediatricians like Dr. Patricia Cantrell. With 20+ years of service in the San Diego area, she draws a connection between ongoing school closures and worsening mental health and advocates that a return to in-person learning is a safe, doable, and necessary step in combating teens’ mental health struggles.
Along with other San Diego school districts, Poway Unified School District has employed a virtual learning model since the beginning of the school year.
In talking with thousands of patients over these last months, Cantrell says she has heard many perspectives regarding online learning. Chief amongst them are complaints about the lack of time and absence of efficiency. Cantrell says patients consistently approach her in distress over the rapid pace that teachers use to cover class material.
Cantrell says she has noticed that students are experiencing a sense of academic disconnect, one that is worsening mental health issues.
She says that “it’s been very difficult for [her] to watch kids failing in their classes” when they feel “they can’t do anything about it.”
Cantrell’s interactions with local patients have led her to conclude that while “some teachers may feel that [virtual instruction] is effective… if you talk to the students, it’s not effective.”
Cantrell advocates for in-classroom learning, noting that teachers are often able to teach better when there is a strong student-teacher connection. “A student is more apt to raise their hand in a classroom than interrupt a zoom call to ask a question,” she says.
While there is debate in local communities surrounding a return to in-person learning, Cantrell’s medical expertise has led her to conclude that “we could continue to go back [to school] as there are so many things that we could do that are safe.”
She says she believes a COVID-conscious return to school is the solution to many of the mental health struggles she currently witnesses in youth.
She says, “The statistics do not show that being in school is actually more dangerous than being at home…kids just really aren’t getting that sick.”
COVID differs in severity throughout the nation, but Cantrell says she is positive that San Diego schools are in the position to return safely.
Cantrell says, “There’s a lot of data from other states that show that it is safe to go back, of course with masks. Kid-to-kid transmission is almost nothing; it’s very low. The transmission they’re finding is teacher to teacher, because in the break room [teachers are] eating together. Or we’ll find that the teacher will get it from an outside family member, from home. We’re not finding that it’s spreading [directly] in schools.”
As Cantrell looks to the next few months, she says she remains hopeful that schools will look to the advice that she and many other San Diego medical experts offer.
As of January 2021, Cantrell says she predicts that we would see an adequate drop in San Diego case numbers in February and March. With this in mind, Cantrell emphasized a need for local schools to be proactive in their plans to reopen.
Cantrell says, “They should basically have everything in place; any hand sanitizer and plexiglass, whatever they need, could be ordered.”
Cantrell advocated for this preparedness because she said she is worried that “if the schools don’t prepare right now, then in March, they’re going to go ‘Oh, okay, now let’s look at going back now that the numbers are down.’ And that’s what I’m afraid of. They’ll wait till the last minute, and then they won’t even get the plan in place till May, and then they’ll say ‘Oh well, we only have a month left of school’ and then they won’t come back at all.”
School reopening mandates laid out by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in mid-January will see the prohibiting of school reopening until their respective counties have been in the red tier for at least five days.