Families Rally To Reopen Baltimore County Public Schools

TOWSON, MD — More than 200 people attended a rally Saturday organized by Re-Open Baltimore County Public Schools. The group has more than 2,500 followers on Facebook, and organizers at the event in Towson Saturday morning said voices are growing louder for children to return to the classroom.

Public schools in Baltimore County have been closed for in-person learning since mid-March, when Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon ordered a statewide closure of public schools as the coronavirus outbreak began.

"It has been 10 months since school has been closed," said Carol Vidal, M.D., Ph.D., one of the speakers at Saturday's rally. "I'm here because no one at BCPS has been returning my emails."

Vidal, a physician who specializes in adolescent psychiatry and has students within the Baltimore County Public Schools system, said families wanted to do their part to flatten the curve.

"We know that this virus is serious," Vidal said. "We also know that the effects of this virus on children are mild and that the transmission in schools are low."

The World Health Organization released a report in October showing based on preliminary data that schools and children were unlikely to be the main drivers of COVID-19 transmission as long as community transmission of the virus was low and measures like social distancing are applied.

Still, she said, no student has set foot in buildings operated by Baltimore County Public Schools for class since March.

Youths were feeling the effects, said Vidal, who has daughters in fourth and sixth grades.

"Accumulating data has shown that children have suffered from not being in school," Vidal said. "This will have effects for many years."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an uptick in mental health-related emergency room visits among young people to hospitals since the start of the pandemic.

At the Jan. 9 rally at Patriot Plaza in Towson, a handful of children shared they were struggling during at-home learning, holding signs that said things like: "Public school kids matter too."

School systems in neighboring Baltimore City and Carroll County have sent some students back to classes. Private schools are allowed to return for in-person learning as well in Baltimore County.

While some called for the superintendent and school board to allow students to return to school in person, one speaker said there was another factor.

"The only way you are going to change this is to get on the teachers' union," said Tony Campbell, a parent of a Baltimore County Public Schools student and political science professor. "It is the teachers' union keeping the schools closed."

See Also:

• BCPS Reopening Plan Updated For 2021
• As Coronavirus Spreads, BCPS Postpones Reopening Of Schools
• MD Gives Details On $10M Grant Program For Schools Reopening