Visalia school labeled a ‘day camp’ to dodge COVID-19 rules. Why officials deserve an F

If it was an assignment for a problem-solving class, the administrators at Central Valley Christian Schools in Visalia might earn an A.

Instead of calling themselves a school, they are now referring to their program as “day camp” so they can get around the state’s closure order affecting schools in Tulare County. That order is the result of the county being on the state’s watch list of counties with too many COVID-19 cases.

Day camp is typically associated with 8 to 12 year olds — not teenagers nearly old enough to enter the military.

Yet that is how the kindergarten-through-12th-grade private school is spinning what it is about to offer come Sept. 8.

““We are social beings and crave the interaction that in-person school provides,” CVC Superintendent Larry Baker said in the statement. “This day camp model provides the in-person contact we all want.”

Camps are allowed under current state regulations if organizers follow proper protocols. Baker said CVC would keep students socially spaced from each other, with mask or face shields required. Students and staff will have their temperatures taken before entering the campus.

Tried elsewhere

CVC is not the first private school to announce it is now a day camp.

In Modesto, at Big Valley Christian, students were completing online work inside classrooms with no teacher present.

At Capital Christian High School in Sacramento, students were spaced out in a classroom with a teacher. The Sacramento public health department said attempting to reclassify students already past kindergarten as being in daycare was “improper.”

Fresno County has gone to court for an injunction to force Immanuel Schools in Reedley to shut down in-person learning. It opened for schooling nearly two weeks ago. The hearing was set for Tuesday afternoon.

Why it is wrong

One can feel sympathetic for schools that are trying to get a new academic year started, and for parents facing the unprecedented challenge of their children having to learn at home via computer.

Yet as has been abundantly shown, the coronavirus spreads easily from an infected person’s sneeze, cough or simple breath. That is why social gathering must be limited. As much as they try to take every precaution, leaders at CVC and Immanuel Schools cannot control what students do after the instructional day ends and they go home — or elsewhere.

Besides, calling a school a “day camp” is not exactly modeling the highest standard of honesty and integrity. CVC administrators will say they are working within the state’s guidelines. But a look at the program’s website shows it is all about being a school program — not a camp.

Central Valley Christian still has time to shift to an online-only model for however long that might need to be in place. If infection rates drop to the proper level, counties can leave the watch list and schools can open. Orange, Mono and Sierra left the list over the weekend, and San Diego exited it last week.

If CVC continues the course, however, that would warrant a F in citizenship.