Schools have largely tried to stay open in the face of the omicron surge, but in Howard County, Maryland, there are growing calls for a systemwide switch to remote learning.
A Change.org petition, said to have been started by Howard County public school students, had gathered 9,550 signatures as of Thursday morning — nearing its goal of 10,000.
It calls on the district’s superintendent and board of education to switch to virtual learning until the current COVID-19 case surge is past.
“Students should not be forced to get sick,” the petition states, pointing out that a virtual option this year was only made available for students from kindergarten through sixth grade.
It also points to the public school system in Prince George’s County which has temporarily gone virtual, though in-person learning there is set to resume Tuesday.
The Howard County Public School System coronavirus dashboard shows that, as of this past Tuesday, there were 722 students and 165 staff members in quarantine who had either tested positive for the coronavirus or had a close contact with a known case.