To the Editor:

I am writing this letter as a concerned parent, educator of 18 years and a citizen of our community. For the past two and a half years, we have been following guidelines and guidance that are supposed to be for the benefit of our health and well-being. At the beginning of the pandemic I had faith and trust in the decisions that were being made, but at this point the guidance seems to be doing more harm than good to our most valuable citizens - the children.

One of the most important factors of a child’s well-being, health and prediction of success as an adult is the quality of education that he/she receives. It is true that schools are open and educators/administrators are working tirelessly to do their best to provide a quality education to each and every child. However, the quarantine policies that are imposed on us from our government are doing much more harm than good. There are some students who have been quarantined more than they have been in school, which puts them farther and farther behind. Simply put, if you are sick you should stay home. If you are healthy, you are fine to attend school regardless of who you sit next to in the classroom. No student should be denied the opportunity to learn because they might get sick. This idea is absolutely ridiculous- to keep children home from school who are perfectly healthy because they might be sick or might get someone else sick. There are many things that might happen, but we do not live in constant fear of the what ifs that are a part of life.

I have worked in a classroom for 18 years, kids get sick and spread germs. The simple rule is to stay home if you are sick, get better and return to school when you are healthy. Forcing parents to get their child tested for every little illness is also absurd and prevents children from getting back to the classroom in a timely manner. We used to encourage students to come to school with just the sniffles because attendance in the classroom is a strong indicator of graduation and future success. Now, if they have the sniffles, parents have to prove to the school that their child is not covid positive. I know as a parent, the protocols to get your child back to school are a huge inconvenience and often unnecessary. A parent knows their child and can determine if they need to seek medical care or if it is just a cold. The schools are doing their best and are just following protocol passed on from our elected leaders. To be honest if we want to bring about change to these policies, I think we all need to start pushing back against the mandates and recommendations because these policies are what are putting students farther behind and are overwhelming the health care system. And for what benefit? Among healthy people the survival rate of coronavirus is about the same as the seasonal flu. I’m also pretty sure that after the Omnicron wave of infection, we will have achieved herd immunity, so the emergency can finally come to an end.

The coronavirus has a different impact on everyone depending on the health of the individual infected. But, it is a fact that healthy children are mildly affected by the virus and there is not a severe cause for concern in children who do not have underlying health conditions. So the fact that healthy children are quarantined because of an exposure at school does not make logical sense. Teachers have the opportunity to be boostered and vaccinated, so the children in the classroom should not pose a threat to their health either. Children also have the opportunity to receive the vaccination if their parents think that is best for them. With that said, it is the parents right to choose whether the vaccination is right for their child. This is something else that should not be mandated or forced upon us by the government.

If we want to end the madness of this pandemic and go back to normal. I’m not talking about a new normal- I mean actual normal. We the people are the ones who need to do it. In the real world, people get sick, death is a part of life, but living under governmental control out of fear is not truly living. We need to provide our children with an environment that creates optimism and hope, not fear and suppression.

Paula Henry
Massena