The nation is coming back from the holidays with omicron driving COVID-19 cases sky-high … and most schools are completely unprepared to deal with the results. In many cases, schools are unprepared because political leaders have forbidden them to prepare. The mandate “Schools must remain open” has been handed down from on high, and everyone from administrators to teachers to students is just going to have to deal with that.

The problem is that the circumstances are making it impossible. The Y axis on graphs of COVID-19 cases has to be expanded yet again. Hospitals are overwhelmed again … or is it still? Or is it still, but even moreso? The sheer number of people out sick—even with a shortened isolation period after a diagnosis—is having an effect on everything from airplane flights to hospitals (you know, the same ones that need to treat patients) to fire departments to stores and restaurants. And, yes, schools.

Districts including Atlanta, Newark, Cleveland, and Milwaukee are coming back from the holidays on remote learning. But political leaders in many other cities and states are furiously resisting that possibility. Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York City, told parents to “fear not” as part of his larger imperative to respond to the pandemic with “swagger.” However, New York City schools reported just 67% attendance after attendance close to 90% through the fall, so either Adams’ message was not being received, or a helluva lot of kids were quarantined. (Or both.)

Multiple New York City students told The City they were scared in school. “I am constantly in fear of getting COVID because of the people around me that aren’t willing to follow the safety precautions correctly,” said 16-year-old Katherine Jiang, who argued for schools to go remote because: “People are still missing [in-person] learning because they are scared of getting COVID.”

”I don’t know how to protect myself from other people who got it. I would want school to close down because it’s really dangerous and scary,” said Yin Yan Lui, also 16.

In Chicago, families were provided with COVID-19 tests to administer at home and send in to a lab via FedEx before school resumed. But some neighborhoods (guess which ones) didn’t have enough FedEx boxes to handle the volume of tests being returned:

Tens of thousands of the tests ended up invalid because they weren’t processed in the required 48-hour window due to “weather and holiday related shipping issues.” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is predictably demonizing the Chicago Teachers Union for demanding better for students and teachers.

In Massachusetts, “The vast majority of the school districts and schools in Massachusetts are opening today,” Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters. “Which I think is incredibly important and a terrifically positive sign about the hard work that so many people around the Commonwealth are doing every single day to make sure kids get the education that they’re entitled to and that they deserve.” Meanwhile, the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians and Massachusetts Emergency Nurses Association issued a joint warning: “Our Emergency Departments are at critical capacity and things will get worse.” School districts across the state cited staffing problems in closing schools Monday, while Boston Mayor Michelle Wu acknowledged: “In-person learning is better for our kids,” adding, “However, we have to be realistic about staffing challenges. Districts across the country right now are facing a surge. As positivity rates go up, it becomes unmanageable at a certain point to keep classrooms staffed.”

Baker had touted his administration’s efforts to supply teachers and other school staff with two home COVID-19 tests apiece along with KN95 masks. The two tests were dialed back to one test at the very last minute, while many teachers across the state appear to have been given low-quality so-called KN95 masks.

But whatever lawmakers say schools should do, we see yet again that the virus doesn’t care about people’s feelings. Not yours, not mine, not Baker’s—not even Adams’ swagger. Whether any of us like it or not, learning is being disrupted for the students who aren’t in school—with no remote options in many cases—or whose teachers aren’t in school as coronavirus rates rise to levels unheard of in the pandemic. Some schools may do fine, but for others, no amount of determination will overcome the realities they’re dealing with. And too many of our political leaders are intent on ignoring inconvenient realities rather than making plans for multiple contingencies.