I believed it would be for "15 Days..."
Four days ago today, we closed our schools
Four years ago was the first day of my unexpected new job of homeschooling my four children. It was forced upon me as it was to millions of other parents across the country.
I was told it would be temporary.
I could do anything for a few weeks, but those weeks never ended. “Fifteen days to slow the spread” extended- in some ways- forever.
When schools partially reopened in the fall of 2020 threats of closures continued, cruel and ineffective rules that had no basis in science dehumanized our children to simply being vectors potentially carrying a disease. Children went to school part time, or in some cases not at all in person. They ate lunch outside on the sidewalk, in the cold, six feet apart while governmental officials like California Governor Gavin Newsom dined indoors at French Laundry.
We were betrayed by our electeds at every turn, both in their hypocrisy and lack of urgency for a return to normal for children. Biden’s promise to reopen the schools in his first 100 days was explained by then press secretary Jen Psaki to actually mean that his goal was “to have the majority of schools, so more than 50 percent, open by day 100 of his presidency. And that means some teaching in classrooms. So at least one a day week, hopefully it’s more.”
Andy Slavitt, an appointed White House Coronavirus Task Force member, not only repeatedly referred to children as vectors of disease, he suggested parents have their college aged children sleep in the garage in the spirit of disease suppression.
Children’s well being and right to an education was not our national priority.
Parents had no choice but to fight for our children, since we could clearly see that no governmental authority, at least in blue states, were trustworthy or cared.
We became advocates, lawsuit plaintiffs, lobbyists in our crusade for normalcy for our children.
We raised funds for lawsuits and research to remove harmful mandates, we went to the capitols and halls of power.
We met families across the country with whom we were kindred spirits and created coalitions.
When school began to resume in some areas in 2020 (and others such as parts of California, Maryland and other Blue areas) after countless parent led lawsuits across the country, little did we know that the schools the children were returning to nor the parents would ever be the same. Masks were still required for children, even toddlers, until June 2022, when masking requirements were finally lifted for preschoolers in NYC.
Parents in many school districts were not allowed into the school without proof of a Covid vaccine, while in that same districts teachers who did not choose to take the vaccine were able to teach with the caveat of weekly testing. How did that make sense?
Parents became jaded after seeing the influence Randi Weingarten and the teachers unions had upon not just school reopening guidelines, but all mitigation efforts, and began wondering what other influence special interest groups had on our children in school. We were personally affronted when our electeds stood against us and called us “activists seeking to subvert the law.” How a ragtag group of parents ranging from stay at home moms, executives and everything in between fit that definition we will never know.
We stopped trusting the schools.
We stopped trusting the government.
Our trust in public health was deeply fractured.
I’m not sure that trust can ever be fully restored.
Why not, you might wonder.
Well, for one thing, schools are now empowered by education departments to divide children from their parents, to encourage secrecy and keep secrets from children’s best advocates- the parents and guardians who love them.
Remote school allowance is still on the books.
Our bureaucratic departments of health can reinstitute masking at any time.
While the parents' movement may not have been granted complete discovery into our governmental institutions, we acquired enough information through lawsuits, FOIL requests and investigations for us to see behind the curtain. What we saw continues to motivate parents across the country to stay vigilant and continue to advocate against harmful ideology and policies whose goals are to drive a wedge between parent and child, to destabilize the American family.
Our schools will never be the same until we rid each and every state authority of the belief that the government knows better than a parent knows for their child.
In many ways this four year self study of civics, civil liberties, and freedom has equipped the parents’ movement to graduate and move into the goals of the next four years: to restore and protect childhood, protect parental rights, and protect the First Amendment.