We’ve all had the experience of driving when the traffic light suddenly turns yellow, and we’re faced with a choice. Do I speed up to make it through the light in time? Or do I slam on the brakes to stop for the red light that is coming? I am the driver that stops right away at yellow lights, knowing that it’s usually safer to do so. (I blame it on my cautiously driving dad.)
But there are times when the risks of stopping quickly are actually greater than moving through.
If it’s raining and slippery, and if there is a car right behind me — and I see that the crossing road is deserted — then I’ll drive through the yellow caution light, making sure to examine my surroundings carefully while I continue on.
I see a parallel in Amherst’s decisions on opening up school buildings for in-person learning. Our leadership has decided on a threshold of 28 cases/week/100,000 as a reason to close the school buildings. The number seems arbitrary, but closer inspection reveals that it lines right up with the Massachusetts state guidelines for creating red, yellow and green districts on their weekly COVID map.
Towns that have fewer than four cases/day/100,000 are in the green. Towns with between four to eight cases/day/100,000 (or if you multiple by seven, more than 28 cases/week/100,000) are in the yellow zone. More than eight cases/day (or 56 cases/week/100,000) are in the red.
Under the schools’ current agreement with the teachers’ union (the APEA), any time we move into the yellow range, we are required to hit the brakes and close in-person school for two weeks.
But what if we instead used the time between 28-56 cases/week/100,000 to offer discretion to our decision-makers? If cases are clearly trending up quickly, then give the superintendent — in consultation with the APEA/School Committee/public health officials — the ability to return to full remote and thereby protect the health of our teachers, staff and students. If the trend is trickling along between 28-30 cases, why not preserve the option to keep the schools open, minimizing disruption to our youngest learners, while alerting parents and staff that we are in a “caution zone” and are moving closer to returning to remote? If we want to have a red line for returning to full remote no matter what, let’s draw it where the state does.
Yellow is a time to take caution, look around and make informed decisions about continuing forward. If we slam on the brakes every time the light turns yellow, we risk unintended negative consequences to the health and well-being of Amherst’s children.
Peter Everett
Amherst