SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Public School parents had a difficult choice to make by Sunday night. Their kids will either learn virtually all year or participate in hybrid learning when it is safe.
With the school year getting closer by the day, families are feeling anxious about the fall. Nobody likes ultimatums, but sometimes you have to choose.
"It's tough because I have to make the decision of does my child get a proper education, or should I risk his life," said mom Deena Hayes. "And it's awful."
Hayes has two sons, Dylan and David. Dylan has cerebral palsy, making him severely immunocompromised.
"He had to take the last two months off of school because he kept getting sick with the flu," she said, "It's awful because he winds up with pneumonia, and parents are still sending their sick kids to school knowing that there's a compromised kid there."
Dylan gets sick constantly, Hayes said, and he's already thinking of all the worst-case scenarios for the school year. The family has already seen what COVID-19 can do, as Hayes' relative recently died from the virus, she said.
"He was a fairly healthy person and seeing my son who's never been a healthy person, I mean I'm terrified, I'm scared, I'm nervous," she added. "So having to make this decision by today is impossible without having heard from anybody.
Hayes said so far the school system hasn't given her any information about safety measures for kids with special needs.
"This is an unfair choice," she said.
This is why she can't make a decision until the school issues safety protocols, such as how many students will be in the class and how far away they will be from each other.
"These are our lives, we have put everything we have into these kids and we deserve to be informed, we deserve to be part of that decision making," she said. "And we're not, we're left out."
