MOSES LAKE — Middle- and high-schoolers in the Moses Lake School District are not going to get an extended winter vacation this year, as the superintendent changed his mind this week.

In an online meeting of the Moses Lake School Board on Thursday night, board members rejected a proposal made Monday by Superintendent Josh Meek that the district “pause” instruction for all secondary school students until early January in reaction to the steep rise in COVID-19 cases in Grant County.

In a lengthy presentation Thursday, Meek made the case for keeping students in class, noting sending students home for six weeks would be difficult for many families and would deprive the district of state funding determined by early January attendance. He didn’t say and no one asked why he changed his mind so drastically from Monday’s meeting.

However, Meek said the most important reason is the continued isolation of many teenagers from adults and each other is proving tremendously difficult for many young people to handle.

“Isolation is challenging, and is the most inappropriate response given what we know about student connection,” Meek said. “The more that we can have in-person, direct contact, the better.”

In a special presentation to the school board, Moses Lake counselor Glade Daniels-Brown said he is very concerned about the mental health of many of the young people he counsels, and a number of teenagers are telling him, “I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to keep living like this.”

Daniels-Brown noted isolation, when combined with rigid rules, is used as a punishment, and many young people are responding that way by retreating into pornography, drug use, video games and sex.

In fact, Daniels-Brown said he was far more concerned about youth suicide than he was young people dying from the pandemic.

“In my 30 years as a psychologist, I’ve never seen it so intense,” Daniels-Brown said.

For now, the Moses Lake School District will continue with its current plan, allowing students in middle and high school who opted for in-class or blended instruction to continue attending classes two days per week and teacher-led, online learning three days per week.

Students at the district’s 10 elementary school would have been unaffected by the proposed pause.

“I’m glad this is the recommendation that has been made,” said Board Member Bryce McPartland.

“To keep them engaged is really important, the number one priority is to make sure that our students are taken care of,” said Board Member Shannon Hintz.

“We have set a course,” Meek said of the July decision to allow in-class instruction for those who wanted it. “Our best success is staying that course and not shifting gears.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.