Children let down by state, community leaders amid COVID-19, omicron surge
Our state and community leaders have failed our children.
In August 2021, Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against Columbia Public Schools over its masking mandate, a safety measure implemented by countless school districts around the nation. In response, the ACLU filed a counter-lawsuit in defense of students with disabilities who relied on those safety measures to ensure a free and equal educational opportunity.
My daughter, Stella, was one of the children included in that lawsuit. She was hospitalized in September 2021 with her initial diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune condition that makes her more vulnerable to illness. Additionally, illness increases the odds of a Type 1 Diabetic developing other autoimmune diseases. The masking measures (when paired with other safety measures practiced by my family) were effective in protecting my daughter for the entirety of the pandemic through December 2021, when schools paused for winter break.
In the weeks leading up to winter break, our state leaders made a series of ill-advised decisions grounded in political bullying of our schools. Eric Schmitt’s lawsuit continued. State treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick threatened to withhold funding from schools with masking mandates. And Gov. Parson terminated the COVID State of Emergency, which had afforded schools flexibility with virtual learning and other shifting needs. All of this was occurring at the same time the omicron variant was starting to emerge and rampantly spread in our state.
Columbia schools reopened in January with no masking mandate, minimal quarantining policies, and limited testing options. It took only one week to wreak havoc on our community. Omicron quickly spread in our schools, creating mass absences for students and teachers alike, paired with a major teacher substitute shortage. Within 10 days, our public schools were experiencing a crisis like none we had seen in this pandemic.
After winter break, my immunocompromised daughter attended school for a few days before she contracted COVID-19. It hit her like a brick for 36 hours with fever, lethargy, congestion, and pain all over. Luckily, she was fully vaccinated, and the symptoms subsided within a few days. However, the impact on her diabetes still persists over a week later, leaving her blood sugars consistently elevated. This puts her at risk of diabetic-ketoacidosis, a condition that can cause long-term damage and death if not quickly managed. As a teacher and parent, this required extra time off work to manage her diabetes, which added to the school staffing shortage. Even so, it was necessary for the health of my child. The danger of COVID to immunocompromised people cannot be overstated.
Further, COVID’s impact on youth is still being studied. The CDC recently released a study that shows children who have recovered from COVID may have an increased risk of developing the overwhelming and life-long condition of Type 1 Diabetes. This new study, paired with the exponential increase of COVID cases amongst youth in the past month, should raise concern in everyone.
Contracting COVID may not be entirely preventable, even with the best of efforts. But it was reckless for our state and community leaders to throw caution to the wind and abandon safety measures that were relatively effective in limiting the spread of the virus. Now, our children have been infected at record rates. Often, their strong, youthful immune systems will allow them to recover quickly in the short term, but that does not comfort parents of the 1,000 U.S. children who have already died of COVID, or undo the dangerous, long-term consequences we are still learning about each day. As such, we must immediately return to previous COVID safety measures in all of our schools. And our state and community leaders must put the safety of our children above partisan politics before more children are harmed.
MacKenzie Everett-Kennedy is a CPS teacher and parent.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Children let down by state, community leaders amid COVID-19, omicron surge
