Governor of Virginia calls for ALL Schools K-12 CLOSED for the rest of the School Year:BUT, While most Colleges and Universities are sending students home, One College in Virginia is calling for its students to Return to Campus

Jerry Falwell Jr. the President of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia is telling his students that they can return to campus, and work from their dorm rooms, and that all is good on Liberty Mountain, and the Coronavirus/COVID-19 sickness is not serious enough to close down his college and create a total Shutdown….

from the Lynchburg News and Advance online at www.newsadvance.com:
post/article by Richard Chumney…..

As the coronavirus threatens to spread across the Lynchburg(Virginia) region, Liberty University officials are preparing to welcome back up to 5,000 students from spring break this week.

Defying a national trend of campus closures, President Jerry Falwell Jr. has invited students to return to residence halls and has directed faculty members to continue to report to campus even as most classes move online.

In an interview Sunday night, Falwell said somewhere between several hundred to more than 5,000 students are expected to live in campus dorms, where they will continue coursework online rather than in classrooms.

“I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they’ve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life,” Falwell said.

Very, very interesting post/article, CLICK HERE to read all of it, from Richard Chumley, at the News and Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia…

++++++++++Here is the word from the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, on the closing of ALL K-12 schools both Public and Private for the rest/remainder of the 2019-2020 school year….++++++++++

Virginia schools will be closed for the rest of the school year, Gov. Ralph Northam ordered Monday.

Northam’s order applies to all K-12 schools in the state, both public and private, and comes as the coronavirus continues to spread in Virginia. Richmond-area school districts had already announced that schools would be closed until at least April 13.

Virginia joins Kansas in announcing that schools will be closed for the rest of the year. All but four states – Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa and Maine – are under mandated school closures, according to Education Week.

“As disruptive as this will be for students, families and staff, I believe it’s the right decision given the healthcare crisis we’re facing,” Richmond, Virginia Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said. “I applaud the Governor for taking this bold step now.”

CLICK HERE to read more on this part of our story from the News and Advance staff reports….

2 thoughts on “Governor of Virginia calls for ALL Schools K-12 CLOSED for the rest of the School Year:BUT, While most Colleges and Universities are sending students home, One College in Virginia is calling for its students to Return to Campus

  1. Reid Wilson
    @PoliticsReid

    Liberty University will reopen this week, Jerry Falwell inviting students to return and ordering faculty to come back to work.

  2. More from the Lynchburg city leaders:

    Lynchburg leaders ‘disappointed’ in Liberty’s ‘reckless’ decision to welcome students back

    LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET/TV 13) — Lynchburg City leaders said Tuesday they have been fielding complaints about the hundreds of students who have returned from their spring break to Liberty University, where President Jerry Falwell Jr. has welcomed them back amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    “First of all, I want the residents in this community to know that at no time did I or the City Manager endorse having the students return to Liberty University’s campus or any of the other college or university campuses in our community. In fact, it is quite the opposite,” Mayor Treney Tweedy said in a statement.

    “When we asked President Falwell to close his campus, he explained that he had to remain open for on-campus international students who had not gone home, some lab classes and the School of Aviation. President Falwell also noted that the University would be moving to an on-line platform for instruction.”

    Mayor Tweedy said she thanked the presidents of all the area colleges and universities for their decisions to close or limit access to their campuses.

    “I was very surprised and disappointed to later learn of President Falwell’s most recent decision to allow students back on campus,” said Mayor Tweedy. “We are in the midst of a public health crisis. I am concerned for the students, faculty and employees at Liberty University, and I am also very concerned for the residents of the Lynchburg community.

    Liberty University is an important part of this community; however, I believe it was a reckless decision to bring students back on campus at this time. It is unfortunate that President Falwell chose to not keep his word to us and to this community.”

    Jerry Falwell
    @JerryFalwellJr
    I told Mayor Tweedy and City Manager last week that @LibertyU would have to deliver almost all academics online b/c no class could exceed 100 and we have dozens of those. I never promised to close dorms. The City Mgr response today: but you made it sound like dorms wd close…

    Logan Smith
    @l_csmith1
    So proud to call @LibertyU my home! The unnecessary rage against Liberty’s administration in handling #COVID19 is 100% unjustified https://twitter.com/jerryfalwelljr/status/1242221441866772482

    President Falwell even walked through campus and met with many of the students who had returned.

    “They were talking about being glad to be back. I was joking about how they pretty much had the whole place to themselves and told all of them to enjoy it,” Falwell said.

    In an interview Tuesday, Falwell said he told Lynchburg leaders that they would be moving most classes online and would still be following the governor’s order to keep classes that have to still meet under 10 people and following social distancing.

    He said Mayor Tweedy’s statement was a ‘cheap shot’ and that ‘she knew better’, “she knows what I told her,” Falwell said.

    He said that Liberty University wasn’t doing anything different than any other school in the commonwealth and they are following all of the state’s orders.

    “All operations appeared to be in compliance with the governor’s emergency order, which becomes effective at [11:59 p.m. Tuesday, March 24],” reported Jim Bowles, CVHD’s environmental health manager. “We observed that all operations were carry-out only, no seating was provided, and onsite security guards—present at each location— were limiting the number of customers in line to 10.”

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