A Question for the Parents of Children
Attending Washington County Schools
By Quinton B. Smith
I’m sure by now every question you’re expecting regarding the coming school year is whether or not we should try to make students wear masks. Rest assured, that is not my question. My question is: Should we even be opening up schools for kindergarten and elementary students?
On July 14, 2020, the Washington County School Board held a meeting about the protocols they will be implementing regarding reopening the schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All the administrators were sitting six feet apart acting like there was a shared and genuine desire to safeguard themselves from contracting COVID-19 in that room.
Meanwhile, residents of Washington County are livid. Some think that the mask mandates are a violation of our Constitutional Rights. Others think that wearing a mask is our civic duty to protect everyone equally. Regardless of if you’re for or against masks and social distancing, young kids are not going to keep masks on or sit six feet apart from each other all day.
There was a lot of placating going on in that meeting, and a lot of opinions were tossed around outside of that room too. But no one seems to be able to admit that they don’t know. So I’ll be the first: I don’t know anything about viruses. I don’t know about mask qualities or the difference between a p90 respirator and a freaking handkerchief.
I don’t even know if COVID-19 represents a real risk to my kids. I doubt it does, but I don’t know that it doesn’t. And none of us loud, opinionated, letter-to-the-editor writing Utahns really know what the hell we’re talking about. You might be 98% sure you know “what’s really going on,” but you also know that’s not sure enough to pick a wild mushroom up off the ground and eat it. 98% sure ain’t sure enough to pet a stake, and it ain’t sure enough to risk the safety of our kids.
If the state and the school board says our kids need to wear masks and keep six feet apart from each other, we need to just take them at their word. We’ve trusted them with our kids this far. The problem is, it’s not possible for elementary students to follow their advice. It’s even going to be an epic challenge for high school students to follow these rules.
These administrators seem to believe that the risk to children’s health, and even their lives, is there. These educated adults sat in that meeting to tell us how they’re going to take care of our children and they all sit six feet apart and they all were wearing masks and they said how they won’t be liable if anything happens to our kids–they clearly don’t know everything either.
Maybe they are the best administrators in the country, but apparently they don’t know much about young children. There should have been more elementary teachers in that room who at least understand what classrooms are really going to be facing when school starts.
So here’s the question for you parents that the title of this rant promised: How is the school board ok with opening up schools, especially kindergarten through fifth grade, when they know they can’t promise the same protection from COVID-19 for your’s and my kids that they required for themselves in that meeting?
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