By Randy Rossi -
This crazy debate about reopening our schools this fall proves how correct the American people are when 80% of them said in a Gallop poll that America is now in chaos. Hard science has proven beyond all doubt that children under 18 years of age have almost no chance of getting seriously ill or dying from COVID19. Dr. Scott Atlas, a Fellow at the Hoover Institute said it best: “The COVID 19 fatality risk to children is nearly zero”. On top of that good news, science also shows that children are very unlikely to even catch COVID 19 and therefore unlikely to transmit it to each other, their teachers, or their parents. According to the Center for Disease Control, only 30 children under the age of 15 have died from COVID 19 in America and that is probably overstated. Compare that to the 190 American children that die from the annual flu each year, the 436 that die from suicide, the 625 that die from homicide, and the 4,114 that die from unintended causes like drowning each year and COVID 19 is the last thing a parent needs to worry about! Added to this is the fact that most of Europe has fully reopened their schools with no negative impact on their kids from COVID 19.
Yet despite this overwhelming science that kids are not at risk from COVID 19, many if not most Democrat politicians in many states and cities along with the Teachers Union are pushing hard to not reopen our schools and to continue forcing our kids to stay at home and get a “virtual education”. Science tells us that not reopening our schools is extremely harmful to our kids and could hurt them for the rest of their lives. Once again Dr. Atlas summarizes that well when he said “”School closings severely damages children’s development and generates next to no gains for public health”. President Sally Goza of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said that “Missing school can have serious consequences for child health and well-being, particularly for students with disabilities or with special healthcare needs”. She added to that when she said “Students physically in school learn social and emotional skills, get healthy meals and exercise, and mental health support. Schools help identify and address learning deficits, physical abuse, substance abuse, depression, and suicide ideation”. “Virtual education” does none of that for our kids. The proof is overwhelming, keeping our schools closed and substituting “virtual education” for a real education will cause massive pain to our kids that will harm them for the rest of their lives. The bottom line is that closing our schools out of hysterical fear of COVID 19 is the worst form of child abuse that we could do to our kids.
Sadly, even when our kids are in school, they are getting a poor education compared to the rest of the world. America spends more dollars per student than any other nation in the world yet our kids rank very low compared to much of the civilized world. America spends $13,600 per student a year yet our kids are 25th in the world in reading, science, and math combined. Incredibly, American kids are 39th in math, a critical skill for success in the world. Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian kids along with many European kids learn far more than our kids do at school which is a threat to the futures of our kids in a highly competitive world. Closing our schools because of irrational COVID 19 fear will seal the fate of our kids and cause them pain and suffering for the rest of their lives. Folks, isn’t that the definition of child abuse? It is bad enough that we have put 40 million Americans out of work because of a hysterical overreaction to COVID 19 which has caused massive depression and deaths by suicide, drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, and domestic violence. But closing our schools will cause massive damage to all of our kids by hurting their educations, social skills, and their mental health that will impact them for the rest of their lives.
If you love your kids, it is time to demand from your local and state politicians and school boards that schools be reopened in the fall to stop this incredibly damaging child abuse caused by closing our schools. If you don’t speak up and demand to open our schools, you are aiding and abetting this horrible child abuse on your kids and grandkids.
