Plastic Student Desk Barriers Spark Ire Among Toms River Parents

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Elementary students will be returning to school four days a week in the Toms River Regional School District on Monday, the first time teachers will have nearly full classes since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted school last March.

But the measures put in place to try to prevent the spread of the virus — specifically white plastic privacy barriers — have angered a number of parents in the district, who say the district promised clear barriers for students' desks.

District officials say limited choices from vendors approved by the state and problems that arose led to the district buying both all-clear barriers and the white privacy barriers.

"The final decision to purchase each barrier was based upon how each version would fit the various needs of our different desktops; student heights; cleaning procedures; and would adapt to our varying classroom environments," Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said in a letter emailed to district parents and staff on Sunday. "While no student desk shield is perfect, our hope is that these barriers are a temporary means to an end as COVID-19 numbers continue to decline within our area, and restrictions can gradually be removed from our learning environments."

Parents commenting in several Facebook groups were critical of the white corrugated plastic barriers that have a clear window in the front, calling them "unacceptable" and saying the district should have been better prepared.

The New Jersey Department of Education and the state Department of Health have set out a multitude of requirements, based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, for students to return to classrooms, including wearing masks and taking steps to promote social distancing.

The education department's "restart" plan for schools, "The Road Back," calls for students to be 6 feet apart, and where they cannot be that far apart, they must wear masks and put up barriers between students.

The district had purchased 1,000 fully clear Lexan barriers "long before we surveyed parents to select and update their child's learning model," Gialanella said. But when the district surveyed parents ahead of the move to four half-days a week of in-person instruction, officials found they needed thousands more to meet the needs of having 80 percent of students back in the classroom.

"While many districts are not providing such barriers, we felt that this additional layer of protection was warranted to assist in areas where we cannot maintain social distancing," Gialanella wrote.

The district purchased 13,000 of the white privacy barriers, which are used by neighboring districts "and were selected as per their availability and participation in New Jersey and national co-op."

The all-clear barriers posed problems with glare and "varying durability issues," he said, including breaking when they fall off desks and hit the floor. Those had been purchased in the fall for classrooms and schools that had a high rate of students returning to classrooms.

"Both styles of barriers limit students’ full range of vision within the classroom; therefore, classroom arrangements will be flexible to accommodate maximum visibility for all individuals," Gialanella said.

Parents across the district have been clamoring for a return to fully in-person instruction since school resumed in the fall, and the shields are seen by district officials as a step toward making that happen.

Some sending their children to the four-day in-person classes (Fridays are fully virtual across the district) say the district should have been more transparent when describing the barriers during a recent school board meeting. Others said they were just happy to have their children in school four days a week.

"We continue to examine our desk divider needs, and input from staff, students, and parents will help drive our decision making," Gialanella said. "Additionally, we continue to offer a full-virtual model for students and families with any underlying concerns."

"We have, however, been encouraged by how many students have selected in-person learning, and we believe this is a testament to our continued and tireless efforts to provide as safe an environment as possible," he said. "We are excited to welcome our elementary students back to four days of in-person instruction tomorrow and we eagerly anticipate the return of our secondary students in the coming weeks."

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