Chinese version to follow. 中文版本將隨後寄出。
February 19, 2020
Dear Parents,
Ever hopeful that our school will re-open on February 25, and that with that opening we will all return to a normal schedule, we must also recognize that our Spring Break holiday is just around the corner. I want to be clear that we will neither shorten nor cancel that break. Many of our TAS families will surely have plans for travel, and in normal times that would be to a glorious, fun place — often within our beautiful region. But I must admit that I am very concerned.
Neither an epidemiologist nor a medical expert, I am an avid reader and a worrier. And for the past month, I have tried to consume every article I can by those experts who are following COVID-19 and documenting the horror it leaves in its wake. I hope not to be an alarmist, but nor can I sit back and be silent. Right now, this unique virus is swooping in and taking away people's family members, partners, and friends. In the Asia region's most popular places, there are sick and dying people. Daily updates result in government officials adding travel restrictions and cautions; air travel has been curtailed in significant ways, and hotels and businesses around the region report vacancies and ghost town-like hotels and places of business. We have no way of knowing what our situation will be a month from now. Given the data available right now, however, I write to plead with you to think carefully about travel over the planned Spring Break holiday.
These last three weeks have been a challenging three weeks for everyone in our community. Teachers are working double time to provide the best possible digital learning days. Parents have been inconvenienced, and students are spending time at home when they are used to the wonder of a vibrant campus. Your administrators and Board have been in constant communication with the goal of making decisions that will most likely thwart the grief and loss so common in the region, to protect you from that inexplicable blow that accompanies the illness or loss of loved ones. It is understandable that you want a true break from this situation, a family vacation, a visit to loved ones or a trip for pure pleasure. And here am I asking you to carefully reconsider those plans.
Unnecessary travel within the region is a risk, one you may choose to take, and one that may have dire consequences for you, or may result in further lost learning for your children. Governmental restrictions change daily. You may travel to a venue that is fine today, only to find you cannot get back when school resumes — or may return to find the Taiwan government has added your destination to the list of places that require 14 day, or longer, quarantines upon your return. School will, hopefully, be in session both before and after our Spring Break holiday. Our teachers, who have been asked not to travel within the region, will be teaching their regular classes in the normal school day; they cannot do that while also continuing the demanding requirements of digital learning days for absent students. Your child could, therefore, miss another full 14 days of school should there be a requirement for quarantine of which we are not currently aware. I have no crystal ball, but any of these outcomes is within the range of possibilities.
So, I write to you today to ask you to carefully consider where you will spend the upcoming break. Perhaps you will see the wisdom of avoiding unnecessary travel within the region. Perhaps you will choose to explore the beauty of our own Taiwan. Perhaps you will choose a destination that is to date not impacted by this dreadful, sometimes deadly, disease. I can do no more than ask. And I ask knowing you may have made plans already, plans that could be changed. I ask knowing that this is a fluid situation and that none of us knows what restrictions and decrees may be in place by the end of our scheduled vacation period. I ask that you think of what is best for your family and for the entire TAS family should any one student return carrying this virus that we know can create clusters of illnesses, especially within a school setting.
In the end you can, and will, do what you wish. As you decide what that is, please keep in your minds and hearts the ties that bind our community together, the responsibility each of us has not just for ourselves but for our immediate and extended school family. To keep our community safe, everyone needs to do his or her part. We all want everyone to return to school after break and not have further disruption to student learning. Do for others that which you would hope they will do for you. In the end, that is all I can really ask of you.
Faithfully,