An inside look at how a Miami school welcomed back students on its first day of classes
Redland Elementary students in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade got to see their friends on Monday morning after six months being away from school — but only at a distance.
Lines were extra long because of social distancing protocols, and sharing Animal Crackers at breakfast was a no-go.
Before COVID, the South Dade school’s cafeteria was a buzzing place filled with laughing children playing “rock, paper, scissors ” and fighting over the lone strawberry milk carton.
On Monday, that same room was silent, as children entered one by one after their hands were sanitized at the door.
“Yes, it’s weird. It’s extra quiet and kind of like a ghost town,” said Dayamay Gonzalez, a school administrator as she guided each child toward a blue “stand here” floor marking
Monday marked the first day Miami-Dade public schoolchildren went back to the schoolhouse after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican ally of President Trump, and State Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran pushed to reopen the state’s schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. (While the number of COVID-19 cases in Florida has dropped since peak levels in July, the state has recorded anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 new cases a day over the past two weeks.)
The effects of the pandemic could be felt in the schoolhouse.
“What feels most strange is not being able to hug the kids,” Dayamay added. “They come up to you and I’m forced to dodge them like bullets. It breaks my heart.”
But despite the new tone and precautions, 4-year-old Julissa Hernandez told the Miami Herald in Spanish, “It beats being home.”
“It’s finally here and I’m happy because I have a new pink book bag,” she said as she showed off her matching mask. “My mommy says God is with me so I’m OK.”
Hernandez is one of 140 kids who returned to Redland Elementary on Monday. The other 260 second, third, fourth and fifth-grade students — whose parents opted in for in-person school — will return on Wednesday, based on the school district’s staggered start. The remaining 430 students enrolled at the school will continue their education online.
By Friday, all of the Miami-Dade students whose parents signed them up to return to school, from pre-K to high school, will be back.
There’s no doubt that things are different in the schools. At Redland Elementary, water fountains were covered up and not in service. Small groups were eating meals inside their classrooms, while larger classes took turns at the cafeteria. There was no handshaking or horseplay. Masks were to be worn at all times.
“It’s really wonderful to see that the babies are back,” the school principal, Adrian Montes, said as he carried book bags of some of the children. “They are clean-cut, wearing their uniforms. They look handsome and beautiful and ready to learn.”
Montes called the reopening “so exciting but also challenging.”
“For many of the kiddos, today is their first day of school — ever. Yeah, they’ve been in day cares but never an actual school setting, so the transition can be jarring...Right now we are in the training process; training the kids to follow protocol, stand on the marked spots and constantly keep their distance.”
He took a deep breath.
“It’ll take some time but right now they are like little deer in headlights,” Montes added, as one young girl cried for her mother at a distance. “Some are also struggling with separation anxiety. It’s not easy.”
In Sarita Sanmiguel’s kindergarten classroom, children were chipper as they practiced the phonetic alphabet.
“What letter is this and what word starts with it?” the teacher asked as she held up an “S.”
“Sandwich!” one student yelled. “I have a sandwich in my bag, teacher.”
Laughter filled the room as Sanmiguel smiled and held back tears.
“The participation is at another level,” said Sanmiguel, who was teaching her students online prior to Monday. “This kind of stimulation wasn’t happening no matter how hard I tried to get their attention — and I tried. I sang. I danced. I wore different funny hats. Distance was just too big of a barrier.”
According to Miami-Dade County Public School officials, 94 percent of the children who attend Redland Elementary live below the poverty line.
“I am thrilled to see children, who were in crisis before the COVID crisis, returning to the safe routine of normalcy that caring teachers bring to them in our schools,” said Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
The reopening of schools is not only helping children whose families may not have high-speed Internet service at home, but it may help children in other ways, according to experts at Kristi House, Miami-Dade County’s only child advocacy center.
“The scary slowdown in child-abuse cases reported during the pandemic is expected to end as children return to their school campuses and are seen by faculty and staff, who are often the ones to identify and report cases,” said Amanda Altman, CEO of Kristi House, a nonprofit that focuses on eradicating child abuse and sex trafficking in South Florida.
With teachers and school staff accounting for some 40 percent of child abuse reports, experts believe that countless abuse cases went undetected during the pandemic.
“It’s heartbreaking to imagine the abuse and trauma that children suffered this summer because no one was around them to identify it and report it,” Altman said. “At Kristi House, we are taking extra measures to prepare our staff to handle a dramatic increase in the number of children and families expected to seek therapeutic services.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 2:55 PM.
