School confessional: ‘Feeling like we are choosing our job vs. our child’s wellbeing’

The following is a response to our call for people to share thoughts and concerns about Michigan schools returning to in-person learning this fall.

“As a household with two working parents, we are stuck in a position of feeling like we are choosing our job vs. our child’s wellbeing. Companies like mine are not making it easy for working parents to work from home due to an overbearing work environment, but our household can not survive off of one income and my child’s school is not returning to in-person instruction. I want to protect my child, his teachers, and my entire family. But companies are making an already stressful situation that we have no control over more stressful. We need more protection for working parents at this time who shouldn’t have to choose between their child’s health or being able to put food on the table. There is no winning regardless of what schools do.”

-- Anonymous

View more: School Confessionals

School confessionals: Share your thoughts, concerns about return to in-person learning

Michigan school districts, colleges and universities are working to prepare for a return to in-person classes this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In-person classes were stopped in March when the virus swept through Michigan. On June 30, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revealed her plan to help schools across the state return to in-person learning this fall. The “MI Safe Schools Return to School Roadmap” is a 63-page document that outlines coronavirus (COVID-19) safety protocols for each phase of Whitmer’s reopening plan.

The governor’s order requires each school district to adopt a COVID-19 plan that lays out how it will protect students and educators across the various phases of the Michigan Safe Start Plan. Whitmer’s roadmap is to be used as a guide.

• Aug. 6: Gov. Whitmer signs order requiring children, workers to wear masks at Michigan childcare centers, camps

This has everyone -- parents, teachers and students -- wondering whether this is a good idea, how well it can be accomplished, how safe everyone can be kept, and what exactly the best to do this will be.

Please share your thoughts and concerns about returning to in-person learning this fall -- we want to hear from you:

Related:

• Parents can choose -- Detroit Public Schools reveals official back-to-school plan
• Here’s what Michigan school districts have planned for the fall amid the pandemic
• A look at how Oakland University is preparing campus for fall return amid pandemic
• A look at how Eastern Michigan University is preparing campus for fall return amid pandemic
• Return to School section