September 1, 2021
What is wrong with this world? The kids went to school for 3 weeks, with no mask mandate. The contact trace quarantine was downgraded to "suggested" after Gov. Lee passed an executive order to prohibit school districts from instituting their own mask mandates. Memphis and Metro did it anyway. Then there are SO MANY SICK PEOPLE that Wilson closed for a week. That should fix it, right?
Here is my main issue with the current lack of leadership, and the letter I sent to every elected official in the county and state.
"My “rights” should include the “right” to send my children to public school, funded by my taxes, with the expectation that those I elected will take all reasonable measures to make that a safe place for them to learn. We prohibit peanut products, as they might make some children sick. We prohibit drugs at the schools (you have to fill out two forms just to have Benadryl on hand for kids with allergies) in to protect the children from access to inappropriate substances. We ban smoking and vaping on campus, because they are bad for the health of the students. There are speed limits on school campuses and the zones around them, with people in the road to enforce them. We don’t permit weapons of any kind, again, to protect the kids while they are at school. All these things impact a small fraction of the student population ~yet we all accept these limitations to our “freedom” in the best interest of student safety. ALL of these examples demonstrate that our “right” to do whatever we want actually ends the moment those choices become a threat to someone else. So, how can you allow people to shout about their “rights” when they pose a DIRECT risk to my child’s health? Why do those of us who are willing to be inconvenienced (which is NOT the same thing as oppressed) in the interest of protecting ALL the kids have no "rights?” Where is our “freedom” to have the right to have our kids be safe as possible at school? How did this ever become about anything other than protecting those without a voice, our children? The Governor keeps saying parents know what is best for their children - Why do other parents get to choose for me that they can expose my family to a highly contagious virus? Where is my “choice?” I don’t even have a virtual “choice” thanks to the current policies. Sick children are not learning. Terrified children are not learning. You are creating both, and it is not helping them with the dreaded “learning loss” you keep harping about. It is making it worse and if you don’t change course, your legacy will be an object lesson and not an example of leadership.We need actual leadership. In lieu of that, we need a virtual option NOW before more health care workers and school employees end up in mental crisis and leave the professions when we need them most. It is already happening. Fix it. Now."
It probably won't help. But I have to believe that there is some power in words. I feel so defeated as a parent trying to teach childrent that we have a responsibility to our fellow humans, to teach them kindness and compassion when they are surrounded by so many selfish adults who only care about what THEY want that they can't see (or just don't care) that what THEY want and what THEY do actually has the potential to directly harm others. Constantly looking to demonstrate and find examples of good people so the children don't feel as hopeless as I do.
