Let me start by acknowledging those adults within the school district who care more about students’ well-being than acting like COVID-19 compliance officers. We know who you are, and we appreciate it. Thank you.
That being said, Cordova schools have entered the Twilight Zone. School-age children, the least vulnerable to COVID, have been the most affected by egregious COVID restrictions. So unbothered, are they, by the virus that the New York Times had to concede that to healthy children “the danger of severe Covid is so low as to be difficult to quantify.” It is statistically indistinguishable from 0.00%.
For a risk that low, their school life has been severely disrupted, their education has been kneecapped by mitigation, meaningful interaction has been smothered behind masked faces and muffled voices. Yet, through it all, students are still expected to show up eager to learn, to engage, and to show gratitude for the mistreatment.
I recently asked about the district’s rationale for ongoing mitigation measures — specifically, discrimination against unvaxxed students, and temporary return to online classes.
The rationale for online classes was that too many students/staff were out with COVID. I wonder — out with COVID or out from CDC “guidelines?” As for discrimination rationale — I was informed there would be no debate “about the realities and risks of this pandemic” and that my “inability to understand the complexities involved is unfortunate.”
On the contrary, I understand all too well — it’s quite simple, really. Cordova schools have “derailed” into a river of CDC COVID mitigation madness and our children are “drowning” in it. The time for a return to sanity isn’t now, it was two years ago.
Thomas Nothstine
Cordova
Nothstine has five kids enrolled in Cordova schools, four at Cordova Jr./Sr. High School and one at Mt. Eccles Elementary.