Some Las Vegas Valley private schools already have or are in the process of opening campus for in-person learning. In addition to maintaining social distance of six feet or more and mask wearing, Jonathan Baktari, M.D., CEO of e7 Health in Las Vegas, offers some other tips to keep children and families safe.
For Parents:
- Explain to your children, and model behavior, emphasizing the importance of face masks and wearing them properly above the nose and over the mouth.
- Keep a cloth or something in pocket to open door handles and avoid shaking hands
- Emphasize the importance of avoiding touching your eyes, mouth and nose while at school. These areas are pathways for the virus to enter the body.
- Once a student comes home, sanitize, shower and change clothes.
- Don’t share masks with family members or others.
- After a day of use, either wash your mask or use a different one the next day. After being out in public, the virus could be on the mask, so you don’t want to put that mask back on your face.
For Schools:
- Implement efficient on-site screening systems for children who may have symptoms to minimize their contact with others.
- Create separated classroom work pods so if one pod or group is infected, it’s not interacting with another group. Make sure students stay within their pods and do not mingle and spend time in other pods.
- Minimize students congregating and classroom changes
- Students should eat lunch at their desks, not in a crowded lunchroom
- Hold class outside, when possible
- No parents, visitors on campus
- Sanitizer stations should be in every room, and reminders to encourage use when anyone enters or leaves the room are also important.
- Avoid sharing of supplies, equipment; no common supply systems
- Stagger days, if possible, to minimize crowding. Some schools have adopted schedules where, for example, half the students are on campus on Monday and Wednesday, the other half on Tuesday and Thursday; everyone learns virtually on Friday.
- If a door can be kept propped open, do so, in an effort to eliminate frequent touching of door handles. Look for other “high-touch” zones and seek out ways to minimize repeated touching by different people.
