Lucas Camilo

Yesterday a staff member at Aki Kurose middle school in Seattle tested positive for COVID-19. Lucas’s school is less than a mile away from Aki so it felt like the final straw, that the time had come to pull him out of school. And then today, just a few hours ago, the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools announced that all schools would be closing for two weeks. Meanwhile the governor of Washington state has ordered a halt to all events events of more than 250 people.

These are tense times in Seattle. Every day the news gets a little more serious and the urgency to take steps to stop the spread of the virus increases. For those of us in the epicenter of the US’s largest coronavirus outbreak, it’s becoming clear that lots of people are going to get sick and that all of our lives are going to be significantly disrupted.

Lucas doesn’t seem too upset about it and in fact reacted with joy to the news he was staying home (even though he also enjoys school). Hopefully he’ll be blogging more in the coming days. Indeed, we’re still getting our heads around what it’s going to mean to have two kids at home for at least two weeks, without trips to events, museums, or other kid-friendly outings. I guess walks to the park are still ok so we’ll try for lots of those.

Anyway, here’s what Lucas wrote this morning before settling in to his games and music:

Staying Home is awesome because I get extra screen time. I have started to make playlists featuring certain things in them. So far I’ve made a bell playlist and a rain playlist. What would you like featured in a playlist of mine?

The reason I’m staying home is that I don’t want people around me during this Corona Virus thing.

We’ll keep you posted. Stay safe friends.