Want kids in schools? Then it’s time for some Wichita adults to grow up — and mask up

If you’re upset about Wichita-area school districts postponing a return to in-person classes or moving students back online, ask yourself this:

What are you doing to curb the spread of COVID-19? Are you:

a) Heeding the Centers for Disease Control’s suggestions — avoiding travel, forgoing large gatherings, limiting interactions outside your household, self-isolating if you’ve been exposed, staying home if you’re sick, and wearing a mask when you’re out and about?

Or, b) Screaming hogwash, hokum, or hoax?

In Sedgwick County, too many are going with Option B.

Wichita school district leaders agonized this week before finally voting 5-2 to keep secondary students learning remotely for the rest of the semester — a decision that’s sure to have a profound impact on children, families and the community.

Sadly, they didn’t really have a choice.

As the county’s positive test rate for COVID-19 hits record levels — Wednesday’s figure was 22.7% — area hospitals are full, and health officials are sounding an alarm.

Dr. Garold Minns, the county’s health officer, issued a new order tightening restrictions, including limits on mass gatherings and an earlier curfew for bars, nightclubs and restaurants.

All indicators, Minns said, are pointing in the wrong direction.

And yet.

None of that will make a difference if residents don’t change their behavior.

“If we want to get control of this,” Minns said, “we’re going to have to have better compliance.”

The very word — compliance — will no doubt send some opponents through the roof. They’ll squawk about liberty and personal freedom, refusing to acknowledge the generations of Americans who made sacrifices for the common good.

During World War II, the U.S. government created a rationing system for supplies such as gasoline, meat, butter and sugar. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, many cities mandated face masks, and with few exceptions, people obliged.

But here we are in 2020, griping about take-out.

Several Wichita-area restaurants and other businesses are closing temporarily or adjusting their hours in response to the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Wichita school board member Ernestine Krehbiel said she wished more students could go back to in-person classes, but the numbers are too high and the risk too great.

“I wish the public would get smart,” she said.

It’s smart to cover your mouth and nose whenever you’re out in public. New findings from the CDC this week show that wearing a mask protects you, not just those around you.

But more than that, following public health safety guidelines is the right thing to do because it’s kind, thoughtful and generous. It shows you care about the people around you. It shows you’re thinking of the greater good.

It shows you’re an adult who’s not afraid to act like one.

This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 2:27 PM.