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(Before I’m contacted again, let’s put the following to rest so you can focus on the article – Yes, I know it’s better to have students in school.)
Please give me a second while I pull my mask down. Writing this column while wearing my reading glasses is annoying at best since they always fog up while continuing the art of breathing.
Yes, I know it’s a pain in the ass but that’s nothing – I’m sure – compared to the pain of intubation and a ventilator.
EIGHT DAYS BECOME ETERNITY
This column is being written on 8/9/20. With the insane rate of hourly changes, who knows what our country, let alone classrooms will look like when you read this on 8/17/20. And that’s ONLY eight days from today.
Who knows, maybe there will be so many teachers who resigned, are hospitalized or heaven forbid, dead, because of COVID-19, you won’t have to worry about distance learning – since there will be no one teaching.
338,000 IS A LOT OF KIDS
Again, as of this writing, the American Academy of Pediatrics reports 338,000 out of almost 5 million reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. were children. And the majority have not even returned to school yet.
As an occasional substitute teacher and speaker with my Student Success Project, I’m in the classroom, cafeteria, auditorium, on the PE field and sometimes at pick-up. I can tell you this – holding in person school will be require a herculean effort to pull off.
Now, you’re storming city meetings because you’ve had enough of the government taking away your rights. You say masked children can’t get enough oxygen. Their parents won’t wash them so kids will be swimming in bacterial infections. Parents have washed their kids’ underwear, socks, and lunchboxes, so why not masks?
Even wearing masks all day every day, our heroic health care workers and first responders are dying from COVID-19. The conspiracy theory that “masks are more harmful than the virus” simply incenses me.
“This is an unfortunate opportunity to share family thoughts and values about death, dying and loss. Buy and decorate a mask with your child, make it a life lesson instead of heaven forbid trying to explain the death of a student, a teacher, a school employee or a loved one.” said South Florida based Mental Health Counselor Lori Moldovan, RMHCI.
I ask you, anti-masking parents, if you win this fight, how many of our teachers are we going to lose before you change your mind? How will you feel if your child’s bus driver dies? How might you feel if your elderly parent was the librarian or lunch attendant?
We can’t stay home forever, or even until the pandemic is over, however we can follow scientific guidelines for best possible outcomes.
162,000 IS NOT A CONSPIRACY
And we most definitely cannot have our cake and eat it, too. If we want to resume our in-person interactions, we have to protect each other. And I’m willing to bet the children, grandchildren and friends of the (at this writing) 162,000 victims would agree.
You keep asking, “When will this end?” It will end when there is a safe, validated, vaccine. And, no, you don’t have to remind me you will not be getting the vaccine. I already know. So maybe I should say this would end when enough of the rest of us get the vaccine so that you and your family can be safe, alongside ours.
What if you’re wrong? The way I see it, if scientists are wrong about masks, the worst case is some dreaded infections from dirty masks. Historically, kids have endured far worse in times of calamity.
ONE LAST QUESTION
Only one question remains – what will the number of students with COVID-19 be on 8/17/20? – the day this article hits the stands….?
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached at 305-788-4105 or email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project. Lori Moldovan RMHCI can be reached at 786-747-2855. She works with adults, couples, teens and children with a wide-range of mental health issues.
