A CSO ponders, should my children resume in-person learning?

Eric Svetcov, chief technology officer and chief security officer at Medigram, has two children in elementary and middle school, respectively. They have been doing online learning following the surge of COVID-19. Next week, their school district in Plano, Texas, will allow students to continue distance learning, or go back to in-person learning.

“When I realised I didn't have sufficient information to make a decision regarding whether my children should resume in-person learning, I decided to ask questions of our school district,” says Svetcov, over a Skype call early this week.

With his background in information risk management and as IT auditor, Svetcov created the website VirusSafeSchools. The site aims to provide “politically neutral, evidence-based information” to help people interact with their school/district and understand the risks associated with going back to school amid an ongoing pandemic.

The website includes a risk-based questionnaire and a list of what “good” looks like for a return to school. The latter distils the top 15 items that will help reduce transmission rates in schools. 

“It would also make it much less likely for the school to become the next cautionary tale of an ill-advised return to school programme,” says Svetcov, who was based in Auckland for two years as part of the risk advisory services/IT advisory at KPMG. “It is relevant for New Zealand because this is protection now and in the future should there be a future outbreak.”

Svetcov links this undertaking to his work as chief security officer and chief technology officer. “We security people always deal with risk,” he says. “If you look at the COVID-19 School Due Diligence Questionnaire, it has the same type of questions I would ask for during an IT audit.”

The list, for instance, includes observations on air handling, filtration and maximising outside air (“moving to 100 per cent when possible would be helpful... where outside air cannot be increased, supplementary air cleaners are used within classrooms [box fans with MERV-13 attached filters can be used to save money”]). 

“The thing with all of us in IT and information security, we deal with air handling units all the time. We look at how cold it would get, and the level of humidity. Now, we are looking at aerosol filtration instead – [it’s the] same but different.” 

He also tackles the issue of wearing masks. “Masks are required at all times indoors, fit well, worn properly, and include three layers,” he proffers. “If a student is unable or unwilling to wear a mask, that student should stay with distance learning.” 

He says the COVID-19 School Due Diligence Questionnaire will change as researchers around the globe provide new and better information. And yes, he says, it can be repurposed for other workplaces. He had just recently spoken with a rabbi around using the questionnaire for places of worship. 

Svetcov has already sent the questionnaire to his children’s school district, and says it helped raise awareness to areas such as mitigation in air systems. But the school district’s responses meant he and his wife decided to continue with distance learning for their children.

“The message really is each of us need to take responsibility for determining our own risks,” he stresses. “Organisations need to be transparent about what they are doing so we can make our own risk-based decision. I wish the schools would do better, but what is more important is understanding what they're doing, whatever it is... so we, individually, can make the right choice.”

#leadership #CSO #CTO #riskmanagement #informationsecurity #pandemic #staysafe #health #newnormal #facemask #schools #education #distancelearning #covid19