The United States of America was once the best place on earth to be a child. Over the past two years, we have permitted and even promoted the perpetration of widespread child abuse and neglect at schools in every state of the Republic. The covid 19 pandemic instilled fear in Americans. This fear lead to our justifying policies that we would have unanimously rejected if our judgement had not been clouded by it.

We permitted school closures that violated our children's right to free and public education. We forced children to cover their faces, violating their human dignity and preventing natural brain development. We even permitted pharmaceutical industries to use our children's innocent bodies in medical experimentations. Tomorrow, we can focus on how we got here and make sure it never happens again. Today, we need to agree that it all needs to end and it needs to end now. It is not the responsibility of children to bear our burdens. It is not their job to wear our fear on their faces or stay at home when they should be learning and growing alongside their peers in a supportive environment. Anyone who wants to cover our children's faces or to reduce school attendance have no business working in education. Children cannot consent to participation in medical experimentation and there is never a justification to use the bodies of HEALTHY children in such experiments.

It doesn't matter which zip code you call home, where your ancestors hailed from, your political affiliations or lack thereof, your personal medical choices, your views on matters regarding curriculum or how to best organize education, etc, etc, etc. We just have to agree that we are DONE with all of the covid era school policies. We have to let our kids go back to normal. Their future, and the future of our nation, depends on it. 

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Colleen Shaughnessy, MSW, LCSW, RPT