Letter: Petition Seeks Fall Remote Learning Option In Fairfield

To the Fairfield Patch,

A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with a serious autoimmune disease requiring treatment with chemotherapy. Without treatment the disease results in a one-year fatality rate as high as 75 percent. Fortunately, I have responded well to treatment, and my prognosis is excellent so far. Unfortunately, the chemotherapy wiped out my immune system, making me vulnerable to severe complications or death if I were to contract COVID-19.

For this reason my family and I have been in isolation since before the schools closed last year. I am a professor at Yale, where I teach courses in epidemiology and public health. Since we had been covering the novel coronavirus in class, I was watching the WHO situation reports closely. By the time COVID-19 had been documented in the U.S., I knew we had to fully isolate to ensure that I would not be exposed. So in early March 2020, we pulled my son and the exchange student we were hosting from school. My husband stopped working since his job cannot be done virtually — it requires face-to-face work. It may have seemed radical at the time, but we drew from my vantage point as a public health professional — and so prior to any federal or local guidance, we made swift decisions to protect our safety.

We were not alone. Medically vulnerable members of our community have been staying in our homes for nearly a year; we have quietly stopped working, we have kept our kids out of school, and we have hired services for basic tasks like purchasing food. We have left our homes only to obtain critical medical treatment — and some have delayed medical care since the risk of exposure is so high. Our children have watched from windows as other kids play, and go to school, and participate in sports. We have done this because it is what we must do to survive. And we perceive ourselves as fortunate, because we know that many vulnerable people must risk exposure every day to provide for their families.

We are so grateful to the many people in this community — some of whom we have not even met — who have offered to bring meals or run errands for us. We appreciate these gestures and generosity so much. But in truth we do not need this type of help. We need help advocating.

We need the help of other members of our community to be a voice for us as the school board makes decisions about educational models for next year. The new COVID-19 variants and escalating spread will make it impossible for us to send our children to in-person school until adequate numbers of children have been vaccinated. In-school transmission is occurring — in Fairfield and beyond. For many people, the downsides of hybrid or remote schooling might outweigh the risks of COVID-19. Understood. But for many of us, it is literally a life-and-death situation, and we simply cannot return to brick-and-mortar until herd immunity has been achieved.

Sadly, there have been some loud voices in our community, telling vulnerable people to “just stay home.” We have been. We will continue to. To be clear: We have not asked that others stop living. We have not asked for favors or special treatment — we are simply asking for equal treatment. Children who cannot attend school due to their own vulnerability or the vulnerability of a family member should not have to suffer more than they already have.

So here’s our ask. If you would like to help the approximately 10 percent of families who have a significant medical vulnerability, please support our plea. Please reach out to the FPS reopening committee to ensure that they are aware of this critical need. Please reach out to your isolated friends and ask how their kids are doing. And please, consider signing this petition or writing to the Board of Education to support a comparable educational model for the children who cannot attend in-person school. Thank you.

Marney A. White