PSS has required all students to return from remote to in person learning. There are legitimate health reasons to justify some students to continue remote learning.
This school year the CNMI PSS has been operating at half capacity and a shortened day. Presumably, this was to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. In the first week of December, PSS suspended their in-person learning and moved all students to remote learning coinciding with the governor’s executive order to have non-essential government workers work from home.
In January, PSS discontinued remote learning and ordered all students back to in-person learning with 100% capacity and a longer school day. There are serious concerns for many where there are serious health issues in the home where in-person learning can impose a greater health risk to the student or family. Certainly, increased capacity and longer time in confined proximity with others increases the chance of Covid spread. PSS has provided an in-person learning waiver for students in such situations however, legitimate waivers are being denied.
1) With double occupancy and longer school days, in what ways are the public schools safer now than they were the first of December when in-person learning was discontinued?
2) Who is the physician that is reviewing these medical waiver forms and why is not his/her signature on the denied form? Who are you consulting when evaluating these letters from physicians recommending students stay in remote learning?
DUANE BENSON
Tanapag, Saipan
