LA Unified School District Disaster! Weekly COVID tests cause havoc, crashing apps, hours-long lines to get into school

[Dan Druff]

In July, the moronic decision was made to require ALL Los Angeles Unified School District students to get weekly COVID tests.

An app is utilized to then get a barcode indicating a successful negative test. It's not clear to me how this is handled for those without smartphones.

Anyway, today is the first day of school at LAUSD. It's pure disaster. The app is crashing. The lines are slow, and schools with 4000+ students have hours-long lines to get into the front gate.

I was shocked when I heard about this. Ben doesn't go to LAUSD, so I wasn't aware of this. Weekly COVID tests?!



What a disaster.

[Dan Druff]

[Dan Druff]

LA Times article from July about the decision: https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ination-status


For those unaware, LAUSD sucks, and is a big reason people in southern CA leave Los Angeles and go to surrounding cities with their own districts. It's also the reason why mediocre private schools thrive in LAUSD territory.

[Avon Barksdale]

Pray for California.

[Dan Druff]

[Sanlmar]

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools.

Bigger is better

[Sanlmar]

The homeless are lined up on the odd number side of the street. amirite?

[Sanlmar]

So when I was advocating for local districts deciding for themselves perhaps through town meeting Druff’s experience precluded him from having any damn idea what I was talking about.

Maybe there was an argument for some kind of Chinese top down model in LA.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools.

Whoever thought this was a good idea wasn’t American

[Kalam]

I had heard about this when the news came out, but had forgotten. I have a sister who has a couple kids in a LAUSD elementary school. I am guessing they made it work though, as it is a very high income area where the parents/PTA basically run the school (and collect a lot of $$ in private donations from parents) and insulate their kids from the dysfunction that is the rest of LAUSD. I am seeing them this weekend so I will ask.

I live in an unincorporated city in LA County with its own school district and it is just business as usual here where the desks are spaced and everyone has to wear masks indoors (for now at least). Probably all it will take is one outbreak or teacher getting sick for them to shut down and go remote though.

[ftpjesus]

349 that’s the number of kids who’ve died from Covid. Nearly all immunocompromised. More kids die from the flu every year. Hell more die from drowning in pools. Should we
Pour concrete into each pool. Obviously not just be sensible but life isn’t risk free.

[Kalam]

So when I was advocating for local districts deciding for themselves perhaps through town meeting Druff’s experience precluded him from having any damn idea what I was talking about.

Maybe there was an argument for some kind of Chinese top down model in LA.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools.

Whoever thought this was a good idea wasn’t American

Well, LAUSD is basically run by special interest groups, with the most influential one being the teachers union. So I am not sure comparing it to a Chinese style top down centrally run operation is very accurate.

[jsearles22]

349 that’s the number of kids who’ve died from Covid. Nearly all immunocompromised. More kids die from the flu every year. Hell more die from drowning in pools. Should we
Pour concrete into each pool. Obviously not just be sensible but life isn’t risk free.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/2...flu-deaths.htm

"Flu deaths in children have been nationally reportable since 2004. Since that time, flu-related deaths in children reported to CDC during regular flu seasons have ranged from 37 to 188 deaths."

[Kalam]

FWIW at my sister's school they do the tests in the school itself. I am not sure the logistics, but it is a small grade school, so they can probably get away with that. But yeah, obviously a high school with 2000 kids or a middle school with 600 not happening.

[Dan Druff]

FWIW at my sister's school they do the tests in the school itself. I am not sure the logistics, but it is a small grade school, so they can probably get away with that. But yeah, obviously a high school with 2000 kids or a middle school with 600 not happening.

I'm being told that the lines are awful again today, outside the school.

[Sheesfaced]

FWIW at my sister's school they do the tests in the school itself. I am not sure the logistics, but it is a small grade school, so they can probably get away with that. But yeah, obviously a high school with 2000 kids or a middle school with 600 not happening.

Atlanta Public School system has been doing weekly testing in the schools since February or March and they have over 50,000 students so it can certainly be done.

[Dan Druff]

FWIW at my sister's school they do the tests in the school itself. I am not sure the logistics, but it is a small grade school, so they can probably get away with that. But yeah, obviously a high school with 2000 kids or a middle school with 600 not happening.

Atlanta Public School system has been doing weekly testing in the schools since February or March and they have over 50,000 students so it can certainly be done.

Yes it can probably be pulled off if not run by morons, but why bother?

These tests have a high false negative rate, plus they are incredibly burdensome to both parents and students. Plus kids don't have bad COVID outcomes. Out of 80 million minors in the US, about 350 have died from COVID.

[Sheesfaced]

Atlanta Public School system has been doing weekly testing in the schools since February or March and they have over 50,000 students so it can certainly be done.

Yes it can probably be pulled off if not run by morons, but why bother?

These tests have a high false negative rate, plus they are incredibly burdensome to both parents and students. Plus kids don't have bad COVID outcomes. Out of 80 million minors in the US, about 350 have died from COVID.

So in talking about Atlanta none of what you said is really true. They are the PCR tests not the rapid ones and so they are much more accurate. They aren’t burdensome on the parents or kids as they just come into the school to quickly administer them once a week.

And I agree that the kids rarely have bad outcomes but by detecting the cases and quarantining they can help stop the spread to other family members, teachers, caregivers, grandparents etc. It’s pretty silly to look at it just through the direct impact on the kids. I’ll also add last March when they were getting tested before my parents were fully vaccinated it gave me a lot more peace of mind knowing my kids had just had a negative test before being around my parents who are in their mid 70’s.

And the parents have to opt-in for their kids to get tested, so if you feel it’s too burdensome or intrusive can just not opt-in for the weekly tests.

[Dan Druff]

Yes it can probably be pulled off if not run by morons, but why bother?

These tests have a high false negative rate, plus they are incredibly burdensome to both parents and students. Plus kids don't have bad COVID outcomes. Out of 80 million minors in the US, about 350 have died from COVID.

So in talking about Atlanta none of what you said is really true. They are the PCR tests not the rapid ones and so they are much more accurate. They aren’t burdensome on the parents or kids as they just come into the school to quickly administer them once a week.

And I agree that the kids rarely have bad outcomes but by detecting the cases and quarantining they can help stop the spread to other family members, teachers, caregivers, grandparents etc. It’s pretty silly to look at it just through the direct impact on the kids. I’ll also add last March when they were getting tested before my parents were fully vaccinated it gave me a lot more peace of mind knowing my kids had just had a negative test before being around my parents who are in their mid 70’s.

And the parents have to opt-in for their kids to get tested, so if you feel it’s too burdensome or intrusive can just not opt-in for the weekly tests.

The opt-in makes a huge difference. However, LAUSD didn't have that, and also had/has a slow line checking results each week, thus taking an eternity for kids to get on campus.

PCR tests are better than rapid ones, but still have a 30% false negative rate, and even higher than that in the early stages when COVID is most transmissible.

I will say that if it's simply an optional test, I have no problem with it. The mandatory testing is what really sucks here.

[Kalam]

A kid tested positive in one of my sister's kids classes. Asymptomatic. But the entire class was sent home for 2 weeks, and the students have to take Covid tests at Day 5 and 10 and test negative before they go back. If one of the kids in quarantine tests positive, I dont know if the whole class will have to face a longer quarantine, or just that one student. I also am not sure how they treat siblings. Like if you test positive, and you have a sibling in a different class, does that class have to quarantine for 2 weeks too?

I am meeting my sister later today so I will get details.

From what I can gather, needless to say it is a complete shitshow.

[shoeshine box]

Atlanta Public School system has been doing weekly testing in the schools since February or March and they have over 50,000 students so it can certainly be done.

Yes it can probably be pulled off if not run by morons, but why bother?

These tests have a high false negative rate, plus they are incredibly burdensome to both parents and students. Plus kids don't have bad COVID outcomes. Out of 80 million minors in the US, about 350 have died from COVID.

AHEM.....$$$$$. some folks are cleaning up selling tests, and all that goes with uit..

A multi 8 figure swindle I bet.