I am an advocate of opening schools. We have enough global research data to know that schools are not major vectors for spreading the virus. The kids and teachers who are getting it are most often getting it elsewhere and not spreading it at school.
The data is pretty overwhelming at this point that we should open the schools and there are extra data about mental health and the impact on kids in insolation from their friends. The dangers of opening schools is less than the dangers of keeping them closed.
Open the schools.
But I am hesitant to push this coverage from the New York Times because some alarm bells went off with me. The headline is “Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen” and the subtitle is “Firmly linking teen suicides to school closings is difficult, but rising mental health emergencies and suicide rates point to the toll the pandemic lockdown is taking.”
But let me call you to a few data points that give me pause on advancing a story with conclusions I largely agree with.
In Clark County, 18 suicides over nine months of closure is double the nine the district had the entire previous year, Dr. Jara said. Six students died by suicide between March 16 and June 30; 12 students died by suicide between July 1 and Dec. 31, the district said. One student left a note saying he had nothing to look forward to. The youngest student Dr. Jara has lost to suicide was 9.
Then there is this.
A video that Brad Hunstable made in April, two days after he buried his 12-year-old son, Hayden, in their hometown Aledo, Texas, went viral after he proclaimed, “My son died from the coronavirus.” But, he added, “not in the way you think.”
…
This fall, when most school districts decided not to reopen, more parents began to speak out. The parents of a 14-year-old boy in Maryland who killed himself in October described how their son “gave up” after his district decided not to return in the fall. In December, an 11-year-old boy in Sacramento shot himself during his Zoom class. Weeks later, the father of a teenager in Maine attributed his son’s suicide to the isolation of the pandemic.
I want to be careful how I say this because I know I can be attacked for blaming parents, but I think we all need to be alarmed about 9 year olds, 11 year olds, 12 year olds, and 14 year olds committing suicide over missing school and friends.
The ages just raise alarm bells with me that perhaps there is something more than missing school.
A friend pointed out to me her suspicion that what is really happening in society right now is parents having outsourced their relationships with their children to teachers and the government are finding it difficult to reestablish relationships. I just think to my kids and my son, at twelve, would rather play with me than anyone else. I feel bad that I don’t have enough time for him.
I don’t know these parents or these kids and I am so sorry for their losses. I just really am bothered by kids that young committing suicide over missing school and friends and I really am wondering allowed if there must be more to it only if in part I wonder how a 9 year old even processes committing suicide.
As my friend notes, “The virus just brought to the forefront all the downfalls in families, marriages, etc. So now we’re forced to face it.”
I think we need to reopen schools. I think there is data showing the insolation has an impact on kids. But I also think parents matter in the equation here too and there’s something more than just “they missed their friends and gave up hope” going on here.
Has anyone considered suing the teachers union? They clearly do not have the best interest of our children in mind with this continued lockdown or should I say lockout.
I think you are absolutely correct in making this assertation. There is something not right about a child being so dependent on school that they commit suicide when they cannot be there. Nor can I fathom how a nine or eleven year old are even in a position to consider suicide. Once again, I see a need for raising children in faith, teaching them to be independent and responsible. Kids who commit suicide clearly feel helpless.