On August 26, concerned parents and citizens of Longview, Texas, received some alarming and unexpected news.  The local school board passed a preliminary measure to move forward with plans that allow the school to consider testing students and staff multiple times a week.  The general consensus of parents and voters in Longview was a resounding "No."

This violates the rights of parents to choose competent medical care for their children and assumes the role of parent and doctor.  

The CDC does NOT recommend that those who are asymptomatic be tested.  Each campus performs temperature checks before a student can even walk into the school building.  Furthermore, the students and staff are already wearing masks and practicing social distancing.  These tests are known to produce both false negatives and false positives.  The LISD campus staff are already extremely overwhelmed and the students and parents are anxious.  False test results and medical procedures in a school environment is an invitation for chaos and even more stress placed upon an already very pressured and burdened generation of children. 

Additionally, there are issues of medical records, HIPAA, and legal liability should a child be injured due to a test not being performed correctly or if violations of privacy and security laws were to occur.

This is a waste of school funds, unnecessary, invasive, and astonishing overreach.  Unless students and staff are also forced to quarantine for the time between the test and the results, it's even more pointless and impractical.

Indeed, even hospitals and nursing homes are not mass testing occupants and employees.  Medical testing is a job for a medical facility, not a school.  Concerned parties are left scratching their heads and wondering, "What's really going on here?" 

The community is asking for more transparency on the ideas, goals, and actions of the school board.  On a decision of this magnitude, a parent and staff survey should have been administered before this was even allowed to move forward. 

We ask Longview ISD to please reconsider their positions on assuming the role of the medical provider and focus on the role of the educator.