She attempts to affect a deep sense of feeling, but never gives any valid reason other than the usual Covid-19 recitation--- "it's been on the uptake" --- for depriving all the Long Beach K-12 students of resuming a normal education on Sept. 1 instead continuing with this on-line instruction folly that, to put it mildly, has had mixed results.

[Scroll down for further.]

What's the explanation for Dr. Jill Baker's continuing the Long Beach school shutdown other than following in lock step with the schools in Los Angeles and San Diego, which Dr. Baker admitted proudly she has done. Or other than following in lock step with those great visionaries, Messrs. Gavin Newsom, Eric Garcetti and Robert Garcia.

The Long Beach Board of Education was so overwhelmed it was blessed to have Dr. Jill Baker as its top banana that it nonsensically gave her an annual salary of $345,000---$58,000 more than her predecessor had been making---and a four-year contract worth $1.290 million despite the LBUSD enduring a 10 percent budget cut and $72 million shortfall.

And, in her first major decision, she, alas, shows graphically what kind of vacuous leadership she will wield during her incumbency ---not dare deviating from the agenda of her overseers and, instead, implementing policies that certainly aren't beneficial to her students.

The Long Beach Board of Education, which supposedly has the power to set policy, is set to meet on July 20, and its agenda is unknown although it would be quite appropriate if it firmly scrutinized Dr. Baker's decision.

I read an insightful editorial in the Wall Street Journal the other day in strong favor of reopening schools, and it offered myriad facts reinforcing its view.

Among them: In Sweden, which has kept its schools open, just one out of 20 children who tested positive --.06 percent of confirmed cases -- and have been admitted to ICU and only one has died. While teens appear to be more infectious than K-5 kids, schools that have opened in most countries, including Germany, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, haven't had any outbreaks. In Chicago, of all places, only two children under 19 have died from Covid-19.

But what I found most enlightening in the article was what the American Academy of Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) president, Dr. Sally Goza, was quoted as recently saying, in part:

"Missing school can have serious consequences for child health and well being particularly for students with disabilities or with special healthcare needs. Students physically in school learn social and emotional skills, get healthy meals and exercise, and mental health support. Schools help identify and address learning deficits, physical abuse, substance use, depressing and suicidal ideation. These are all critical reasons to get children back to school."

But not in Dr. Jill Baker's myopic view even though she knows damned well the terrible damage that inevitably will ensue from her edict --- increased familial disruptions, especially for working class single mothers, enhanced hardships on physically and mentally challenged kids, diminution of academic development for all students because on-line instruction isn't exactly a magical remedy for an age group with a notoriously brief attention span.

Will the Long Beach Board of Education members, who are responsible for Dr. Baker's implausible raise on a 4-0 vote (Dr. Juan Benitez abstained) discuss these dark possibilities occurring and actually do something to prevent it?

It's a shame for Long Beach that someone who thinks like Dr. Sally Goza isn't running its schools...

Forgot to mention in my James Brown column yesterday that the venerable Pine Ave. shoe shine legend was married three times. "I out-lived all of my wives," he said.

"How'd you do that?" I wondered.

"Drank a lot of brandy...I guess that kept me young," cracked Mr. Brown, who's 86.

Alas, vodka certainly hasn't done that for me. . .

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Previously by Mr. Krikorian: