I wonder what they would have done during the polio epidemic in the 1950's?

In 1946, President Harry Truman declared polio a threat to the United States and called on Americans to do everything possible to combat it.

"The fight against infantile paralysis cannot be a local war," Truman declared in a speech broadcast from the White House. "It must be nationwide. It must be total war in every city, town and village throughout the land. For only with a united front can we ever hope to win any war."


"Late summer was dubbed "polio season." Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease. Insurance companies started selling polio insurance for newborns.

The fear was well grounded. By the 1950s, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States.

In 1952 alone, nearly 60,000 children were infected with the virus; thousands were paralyzed, and more than 3,000 died. "

Web Link

By month, you do mean 14 days ... and I believe it is a dismissal, not a closure. Closure implies no one is working - dismissal means students won't be at school and teachers will scramble to find the best ways to provide distance learning. Let's make our breaking headlines accurate ....

On another note, I'd like to thank Pleasanton Weekly for allowing non-subscribers to see what is going on during this pandemic. I appreciate the gesture to our community and the effort to keep all informed - thank you!

Thank you for your inquiry, Month? We've updated the verbiage to avoid confusion over the term "closure" from an official perspective, as opposed to a layperson's interpretation (i.e. that the schools will not be open to students during that time).

Thanks to the Weekly for following this and keeping us updated on the situation.

Tuesday - not Monday, I mean gosh you have got to give a virus a chance

This closing should have been done earlier. Need to be proactive on this since the virus can be transmitted without infected person showing symptoms and symptoms dont show for 14 days. If you wait for cases to appear before closing, it's too late.

A lot of colleges and universities have been doing this for years. It's probably a good primer for the high school kids to see how it can work.

Well done on providing remote devices for those that don't have them. I look pretty stupid now for complaining about them buying all those Chromebooks.

All we really have as individuals to help slow the spread is hygiene, social distancing and seriously limit contact with others right now.

PUSD finally closed schools! Hope it was not too late.

But they close on Tuesday, not now...they are bringing all the kids back together on Monday!!

How is this real, all the kids back for one rainy day, indoors all day, close proximity, touching each other then send them home and out in the community.

Pretty disappointing choice of action.

Please cancel Monday now- it undermines the entire effort.

I see no use of common sense in saying students "may" come to school on Monday. Why? This is a guarantee that teachers will have to deal with partial classes and any information provided will have to be sent out anyway to cover all students. Because I substitute in elementary schools, I can say that students are already distracted by the situation and this will most likely result in a day for teachers to provide rainy day, indoor childcare rather than being able to teach. Or, better yet, the teachers could make the highest and best use of their time getting lessons together in anticipation of the switch to remote teaching. The chance of school sites being prepared to start checking out materials to students on Monday is unreasonable. Diligent parents will probably keep their children at home. Those who tend to send kids to school with colds, etc. won't think twice about doing so on Monday. Is it really worth that risk?

I agree with the previous posters. Why have school Monday? Makes absolutely no sense.

If there is even a SINGLE case of a student with coronavirus after Monday, who do you think will take responsibility for the decision to convene classes, the superintendant or the school board?

Great idea PUSD let’s bring the kids back one more day for a roll of the dice, why take the chance??? PUSD will never take the blame for this idiotic idea!

I agree with so many other commenters. This closure should start on Monday instead of Tuesday. I'll be contacting our school and the superintendant hoping that they will change there minds and close school for Monday. There's no point in putting our kids in harm's way for one more day!

if anyone read the email properly school on monday is optional. The teachers have to go but students don’t

School being optional is just PUSD ‘s legal cop out. If someone caught the coronavirus at school Monday, their lawyers will say “school was optional. You should’ve kept your child home”.

PUSD wants the kids to come back on Monday, not sure why.
Many parents realize this is not safe and makes no sense to bring thousands of kids back together again at this point in virus battle after being away from each other for three days - so PUSD is using confusing language - such as the word "option" to return on Monday.

They need to step up and show guidance here and have no students congregating on campus Monday - they will all be stuck indoors all day as well with the rain.

This is a bad plan and is not safe for anyone, teachers or students. What is the point of optional . I thought we were dismissing school for everyone's health.

pee pee poo poo

I don't understand why my kids won't have assignments for a week. If a teacher gets sick and is out for a week nothing would happen? I am looking at online school options. We can enroll the kids where we know they will get a decent experience and be ready for next year. At this rate the teachers are talking like the rest of the year is just a wash. I think its finally time for us to go to private school. Those schools are just going online completely while they are shut down. Pleasanton is a joke. Nobody returns a call or email about what the real plan is.

At some point here we are going to need to look at shutting everything down for 2 weeks to assess where we are. Work, travel, everything. The sooner we do the better.

I also believe we should suspend the elections for a year or two until this has passed. Makes no sense to get the crowds together.

School is now closed Monday. Must have been enough upset people.

Pete, no suspending the election. Vote by mail is a good substitute.

Glad to see the notice from Dr. Hagland this morning regarding class suspension beginning Monday. Please be patient and respect the time your school's staff and teachers need to get everything organized for a smooth transition to on-line learning. Many of us have been on the receiving end of on-line learning, but I doubt many have the experience of being on the instructing end - not to mention putting it together in the course of a week. Excessive phone calls and e-mails asking "when", "how", etc. will only hinder the process! In the meantime, get creative and make some flashcards for math, have your kids write about an experience, draw, read, do puzzles, etc. This is a great time to tune in a little closer to your child's academic capabilities!

"I also believe we should suspend the elections for a year or two until this has passed."

LOL...I agree!

Kathleen, in lots of state you cannot vote by mail unless over 65 or disabled. You have to show id at the polling station. Also how in the world would you have a convention with all of those people. We need to continue with our leadership and the same direction.

Just what direction is that Pete?

The method of voting can be changed. Frankly, Trump has the Republican nomination. A few more states and it’s likely Biden for the Democrats. Probably won’t need those conventions. The country needs to have their say about our leaders.

@Pete

Since the current President is impeached and has polled significantly below 50% among Americans throughout virtually all of his term, it would probably be best for all to just declare the Democratic nominee to be the new President on November 3 and move on from there.

@jeff,

Would that be the old socialist or the old man with no new ideas who doesn’t know where he is half of the time?

I bet Trump wins again and by a landslide.

The State of Ohio has declared that all bars and restaurants will remain closed indefinitely.

NYC has decreed that all bars, restaurants, night clubs and movie theaters will close indefinitely.

People have gone plum loco. Just wait until it happens here and people make a run on the grocery stores for food, instead of toilet paper.

Want to see how a man-made recession is created? We're watching it play out in real-time.

I'll reference this later: Three hundred thousand were hospitalized for Swine Flu. 60 million people infected, and 300,000 hospitalized. It took NINE MONTHS for Obama to declare a state of emergency.

And people here have the nerve to hit Trump up on not doing enough.

Now virus' are political.

Dan

I tuned in again this evening to the second phone conference regarding Corona Virus. Sponsored by Senator Glazer. A couple of pieces of information from that conference:

There are 150 people from the Oakland cruise ship that are Alameda County Residents, probably all of them are in quarantine at Travis.

There are 29 confirmed cases of people with corona virus in Contra Costa County.

There are 7 confirmed cases of people with corona virus in Alameda County. The County health expert representing Alameda county was not necessarily fourth coming with information, she was asked the question three times, mumbled "more information may be available tomorrow".

Governor Newsum was quoted "14% new cases of corona virus in California over and above yesterday".