Chaos Begins all over Cleveland County at 7:30 AM Monday!! Cleveland County Schools Shuts down indefinitely for 15,000 Students and 30 thousand+ Parents and Grandparents!! With only 14 Hours’ Notice!! School Board votes to give Superintendent unrestrained permission to violate policies!!! Report, analysis and arguendo by Robert A. Williams

Folks, the Cleveland County School Board announced at 5:00 PM Sunday, during an Emergency Meeting, that they were closed for education business beginning Monday Morning for an unknown length of time. All CCS will be doing for now is providing drive-in takeout meals at 23 Schools for all persons 18 years old and younger for the duration of the Shutdown. Superintendent Stephen Fisher stated Governor Roy Cooper made him do it because of the Coronaviruas epidemic. After the meeting I asked Dr. Fisher how many confirmed cases of Coronavires there was in Cleveland County? Fisher was unusually hostile, saying that was not any of his or my business. I polled as many school board members as I could catch up with and asked the same question. School Board members Shearra Miller, Richard Hooker, Dena Green, Danny Blanton and Roger Harris all confirmed that they were not aware of one single case of Coronavirus in Cleveland County at the present time.

For those wanting more details, You are advised to go to the Cleveland County Schools Website for information. As plans seem to be changing minute by minute, that is all I will say. Or you can read the Shelby Star’s “Report in Pictures” to see if you can make any sense out of that. I can’t

Now, let’s look at the situation while we still have some sense!!!

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new mutation of the Coronavirus organism. According to the Center for Disease Control, there are now seven varieties of Coronavirus that affect humans. Some not so serious and some are serious. COVID-19 is the most serious, as of now, because it is new and has no vaccine.

COVID-19 first appeared in China several months ago and killed at an alarming rate. Lessons learned from China is the alarming death rate was in large part caused by the new disease not being properly diagnosed and people going to the hospital with advanced cases and the doctors not knowing how to treat the new disease.

The large kill rate set off panics everywhere in China and around the world. The disease spread fast too.

But, as the Chinese doctors zeroed in on what was happening, urged victims with certain symptoms to report for treatment quickly, the death rate in China dropped like a rock. Even as Chinese Healthcare facilities were initially overwhelmed. People with high fever could be identified and quarantined mor isolated to slow the progress of the highly contagious COVID-19 disease.

More evaluation in China and now elsewhere shows that, of all of the deaths, nobody under 30 years of age died or suffered life-threatening symptoms from the coronavirus. And school age kids almost seemed immune from the disease although they could possibly be carriers of the disease. Not so for older people. 60 plus and the COVID-19 had the worst effects. After 60, the threat of death increased significantly. As with the Flu, pneumonia and other illnesses. Strokes, heart attacks, pancreatic cancer and such. Smoking-lung cancer and the list goes on.

So, why close schools when school children are not much affected by a bout of coronavirus???

POLITICS have gotten involved and the Democrats in America almost immediately blamed President Trump. For everything. When Trumped blocked immigration of Chinese early on, the Democrats called Trump a racist and Xenophobic. Let’s not forget that when Trump wanted to build a wall to secured our borders, all the vile names President Trump was called. And more. Not, Trump is blamed for letting the coronavirus come into the US when the Democrats were fighting for open borders. This would be a hoot if the chaos going on now was less serious.

But the name calling is close to laughable compared with the rest of what is going on. The economy, based on Wall Street antics appears to be collapsing. But, considering that Wall Street makes just as much when stocks go down as when they go up, and the large scandals from Wall Street over the years, it is just as likely that the stock market is being manipulated for large profits on a falling market as not. And then make more money when the stock market rebounds. Fast or slow.

Now, consider what is happening closer to home. Not Washington State, not Wall Street, not Washington DC, not Raleigh, not Charlotte, not Gastonia either. but right here in Cleveland County. And, just like the whole of West Virginia; we have not one confirmed case of the COVID-19 coronavirus. So, even though our Democrat Governor and Democrat controlled School Board shut down Cleveland County Schools anyway, we actually have a little bit of time to think about all that is going on around us-here in Cleveland County.

Life Expectancy in Cleveland County: 74.8 years. In US: 79 years
• Since I am 73, I have around 21 MONTHS left on my life expectancy. But I have already lost four years for living in Cleveland County. Soon, I will be living on borrowed time. Coronavirus or not.
• According to the Shelby Star’s recent article about increasing crime rates in Shelby and the death rates due to coronavirus in my age group, I am probably more likely to be killed by traffic accidents, the flu, and violent crime than for the coronavirus.
• If YOU are 30 or below, you have virtually no chance of dying because of the coronavirus. And YOU are more likely to die of old age, traffic accidents, the flu and violent crimes. Just like me.
• If YOU are between 30 and 73, YOU too are more likely to be killed by old age, traffic accidents, the flu and violent crimes than the Coronavirus. Just like me.

Since coronavirus COVID-19 flared up in China without warning and without any medical history as a guide. Things looked very, very bad. But, just as the coronavirus was moving fast, medical knowledge and awareness is moving fast too. Now we know the symptoms. Now we have determined and implemented better treatments, and even advancing every day. What should have been our strategic plan for protecting the most vulnerable of our population?

Since we know now that the older ones in our population are the most vulnerable to dye from the COVID-19 coronavirus, what should have been our plan. Just minutes ago, the first death from this new coronavirus in South Carolina was in a resident in an elderly care facility. No reports anywhere indicate a death of a child of school age. So, are our efforts totally misdirected and wasted??

It appears so. But now, the Democrat Political talking points are that “closing schools reduce the risk of kids catching COVID-19 and coming home to infect grandpa and grandma.” As a grandpa, I say “Don’t blame messing up our children’s education on me.” There are better ways of helping me and my higher risk of dying from COVID-19 that closing schools.

And, while we are figuring, what about the chaos caused by closing schools and the intended “intended” consequence. The ECONOMY is under attack.

You democrats among us might deny this but look at what is happening in Cleveland County right this minute:

15,000 school age kids 4 years old to 18 have been dumped from 29 daycare facilities around Cleveland County, our schools, onto the streets. It started today. With less than 14 hours’ notice. Each of those 15,000 kids have two parents and four grandparents. Even considering that some of those kids are brothers and sisters with the same parents, a conservative estimate would be at least 40,000 parents and grandparents are now involved in daycare functions because of having to be pressed into daycare functions. It is likely that less than 5,000 kids could have been absorbed into existing daycare facilities in such a short timeframe. But, even 5,000 more kids being in regular daycare raises the risk of them getting the COVID-19 coronavirus and passing it along to grandpa and grandma. Has any protection to the kids, parents, grandparents or anybody been increased by this harebrained school closing scheme???

Financial and Economic Disaster:
OK, So, let’s say only 35,000 working age folks today were pressed into some kind of daycare function, instead of going to work. That is over half of the entire workforce (around 62,000) in Cleveland County.

Over half the workforce being out of work because of the major disruptions caused by the School Closings is certain to take a huge economic hit to the family finances of the parents and grandparents. Many who cannot afford such a hit on their finances. Remember well over half of our schools are “free lunch” schools because of low family income. Now there is much more of a loss in family income. It will take some time to cipher all of this out, but the financial damage has got to be huge.

Now, let’s total up the damage that has been done closing:
1. Loss of Educational Time: Say the kids only miss 10 days of a 185-day schedule time $155 Million per year school budget = $8,378,378.38 lost. Double that for making up for lost time.

2. Lost wages: Say $25 per hour (remember, everybody got his by this school closing. Low income and high income alike) time 8 hours per day times 10 days times 35,000 workers = $2,000,000.

3. Lost business from companies and businesses in and around Cleveland County. Who knows how to even begin calculating that big of a loss amidst so many variables? Including potential bankruptcies from business failures.

If you total 1 and 2 from above, you get around $18.75 million for Cleveland County and $1,875 BILLION lost for all 100 counties of North Carolina. And, for what protection. Little to none is more likely.

I don’t know about you folks, but Governor Cooper wasting close to $2 Billion dollars in a Democrat scheme to try to make President Trump look bad is enough for me.

And, since I am in the exact center of the high-risk zone of this COVID-19 coronavirus fatality probability, and I still conclude the best thing to do is let the COVID19 coronavirus run its course and take my chances. (Which is going to happen anyway since there is no vaccine or miracle cures available. However, I will certainly wash my hands regularly and other common-sense things, but my highest risk of death is old age, traffic accidents, the flu and getting shot in a violent crime in Shelby. It is clear to me that staying out of Shelby as much as possible is the best defense that all of us Cleveland County residents have against untimely death. Even counting the chance that a space object might fall on our heads at noon tomorrow. Or the next day.

Plus, working to elect a new School Board majority that will not be stupid enough to allow CCS Superintendent Stephen Fisher the authority to ignore board Policies. And then brag, as Jo Boggs did, about how honest, trustworthy and informative Supt. Fisher is. Apparently forgetting that Fisher filed a $3 million lawsuit against Sheriff Alan Norman without telling Jo Boggs and most other Board members about it. Of course, it might just be possible (99.9999999%) that Jo Boggs lied about that. Not knowing about the lawsuit against the Sheriff. Watch the video of the Emergency Meeting and see the “Lovefest” the School Board showered down on Supt. Fisher. It’s for sure this School Board adores Fisher and his “designated liar” assignment to cover up for their stupidity, conflicts of interest and very often, downright corruption. Such as Former Chairman and Democrat “pal” Phillip “Bully” Glover’s Driving School. A planned scheme where two Driver’s Education Teachers have retired from CCS and their positions were not filled. Requiring parents to pay Glover $395 instead of the $65 fee for Driver’s Ed through CCS. With around 1,000 students per year eligible for Driver’s Ed. What a sweat deal for Glover and a forced scam for the parents. And, that is not even counting the surplus sales of expensive (like $5,000) food processing equipment where the power cords are cut off, listed as broken and then sold on Gov.Deals cheap (like maybe ($50) because no potential bidder can plug them in to see if the equipment will work.

Corrupt planning from the corrupt minds of corrupt people. Too regular an occurrence at CCS. Still going on large because the District Attorney refused to prosecuted anybody in the big school credit card fraud just a few years ago. WE gonna change that soon!!! Coronavirus, COVID-19, longtime culture of corruption or no-matter what!!