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Back to school | Connecticut mothers voice their concerns about sending their children back to school in September

FOX61 spoke with a group of mothers who are struggling to deal with the unknown fate their children may face in and out of the classroom.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — It’s around the corner and it’s on every parent’s mind: back to school. how kids will attend school in-person safely and how often? FOX61 spoke with a group of mothers who are struggling to deal with the unknown fate their children may face in and out of the classroom. 

Michelle Rawcliffe, Emma Woodard, Carmen  Yiamouyiannis, and Abbie O’Brien are all parents of children faced with an uncertain future come September.

O’Brien’s three children attend West Hartford public school, two in elementary and one in high school, all three she said adjusted differently to online learning. 

“My oldest son definitely did not take to online learning. He does have ADD and even if I told him to take his medicine, it was just not a good environment for him to try and focus on a teacher online and my youngest son who's eight really needs socialization. He's a very happy kid and I saw him turn very bitter and then my daughter did really well, she's in the middle,” O’Brien said. 

Yiamouyiannis is also from West Hartford and said she is ready to send her twin boys back to high school.

“They didn't really enjoy the online component and it wasn't honestly that rigorous,”  Yiamouyiannis said. 

Emma is a teacher in Manchester and a single mother to an incoming first grader who will attend school in Farmington this school year. 

“I'm looking at it from both angles,  from a parent, and from a teaching component, and wholeheartedly agree she needs socialization. There's just something so valuable and tangible in the classroom, that I would love for her to experience,” Woodard said.  

Rawcliffe is also a teacher and mom from Woodstock. 

“We don't become teachers for the money or to sit in front of a computer. We become teachers to empower our students to live the best quality of life that they could possibly live and that's a really hard thing to do over a computer,” Rawcliffe said. 

Yiamouyiannis said she isn’t too concerned about her son returning to the classroom and no one in their household has health conditions making them vulnerable to COVID-19. Although O’Brien has a different story. 

“I actually have stage four cancer So, the meds that I'm on currently don't plummet my immune system as much as previous drugs did which is great, but I think it's important for them to go back,” O’Brien said. 

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While both Rawcliffe and Woodard said they are ready to return to the classroom as teachers and want their kids to return as well, they know there are risks. 

“I would love to go back to the classroom because it would make teaching so much easier,” Rawcliffe said. 

“You know choices equal consequences, if we back it's going to be a consequence whether it's bad, the outcome we have to accept and if we stay at home there’s a consequence to that top,” Woodward said.

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