School Closures Are a Necessary Step to Save Lives! WRONG.

An excerpt from Justin Hart's book "Gone Viral: How Covid Drove the World Insane."

Reading Justin’s book confirmed (re-confirmed?) what I knew to be true since March 2020. I was right. They were wrong.

Of course, we’re all still waiting for some accountability but laying out what actually happened — how and why — is a critical step towards that necessary happening. And Justin does that and more in “Gone Viral.”

Thank goodness for brave folks like Justin who were willing to stand up to the madness. He made me feel less alone and not crazy when the hordes came after me, shrieking that I’d gone mad — suddenly and unexplainably overtaken by a deadly selfishness, racism and intense hatred of teachers and minority children! (Hint: they were wrong on that front too.)

If you haven’t bought his book yet, you should. Get it here!

Whether it confirms what you knew to be true, or opens your eyes to the authoritarian madness . . . it’s a must read. You might even consider giving it to a family member or friend who thinks YOU went crazy. It just might crack through the cult-like devotion to covid-mania. Maybe . . . Here’s a short excerpt. Enjoy! - JS

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The fragility of our schools and education system has been exposed. Our Rational Ground colleague A.J. Kay lamented the knee-jerk reaction of her special needs child’s private school in November 2020, “My autistic daughter’s private school—the one I transferred her to so she could resume the in-person instruction she so desperately needs—just closed for two weeks due to one reported case of COVID-19.”

The whole school. One case.

Teachers Became Fearmongers and Terrible Examples

The fear of disease became contagious itself. Many teachers got caught up in the fearmongering. Some groups didn’t feel that the schools were doing enough to clean and make ready schools. One teacher lamented on Twitter: “Our pre-K team was told to report to school today. They will be cleaning their rooms while teaching remotely today. We provided our own PPE & cleaning supplies as our district did not.”

The teacher provided photos to go with the tweet of the teachers in near hazmat-like suits with arms full of disinfectant wipes and cleaning supplies. Desks were spaced 6 feet apart with fixed, permanent plexiglass to boot. Some classroom rearrangers feared desks altogether and got rid of them. Teachers would presumably ply their trade in creative stations on the ground or carpet.  One Alaska independent online website stated, “Some of the youngest students returning to classes today in Anchorage will enter a dystopian classroom world, where they must kneel for hours on end on the floor while masked and have no recess or art or physical expression.”

In Minneapolis, the teachers’ unions were so fearful they refused to go back to in-person learning until well into 2021. They set up "virtual learning center," where students are assisted by in-person staff in a room of similar size, ventilation, and ability to physically distance as a classroom. Teachers are in another room or at home altogether—teaching the kids who are physically in the classroom with laptops assisted by non-teaching staff. As our friend Matt Malkus noted on Twitter: “It only makes sense if you don't think about it.”

Children at one elementary school in Minnesota practiced the “zombie walk” with hands outstretched to keep a safe distance from other students and not touch anything on their way to lunch.

In other school districts accommodations were made with a rotating schedule. Fearful concern was foisted on choir and band classes. One middle school chose to have only three band students at a time come in on a three-week schedule. One mom lamented online: “How can you have a band with only two students? I’m afraid for the future of performing arts in public schools.”

One band teacher was taken aback by new school policies allowing kids back in the classroom. He wrote to parents that he was not yet ready for the students. “As a result of not expecting this situation,” he wrote to parents, “I do not have preparations for masked band tomorrow and as a result we will need to cancel. It very much pains me to make this decision but I will be asking the school to provide me a couple boxes of surgical masks so I can cut slits and we can try it out next week.”

Pictures of band members playing with sliced masks for their wind and brass instruments filled the Internet. Other band practices continued with makeshift personal plastic tents for each band member. It was absurd and everyone knew it, but no one it seemed was empowered to change anything.

School Districts Destroyed the Very Possibility of Education

Many states doubled-down on masking—literally. One school district in spring 2021 wrote parents: “We will require students to double mask after Spring Break . . . this will ensure the safest environment possible as more students are in the classroom.”

Some school districts would incentivize children to help on other programs with the reward . . . of breathing. In Florida, one school was conducting a shoe and sock donation drive. They wrote home to parents: “5th period won our class competition and will receive a thirty-minute mask break tomorrow to celebrate, 5th period took 2nd place and will have a 25 minute mask break, and 2nd period took 3rd place and will have a 20-minute mask break.”

Other districts tried the reverse effect, punishing students if they misbehaved and taking away their mask breaks. The first point of misconduct would be to put the child in time-out. A second infraction would be a call home. The third infraction was the removal of their mask break.

The fear of Covid rose to drastic levels and mask compliance became a means to let loose one’s ire against the panic. In May 2021, a video of bus driver in Colorado went viral after she slapped a student’s face for refusing to wear a mask. Lest we think this woman crazy consider that a large swath of the world truly believed that if you didn’t wear a mask it was tantamount to murder.

Museums and Cultural Repositories Went Out of Their Way to Punish Kids

As the vaccines rolled out pandemic fear found another excuse to fixate on children as a vector of disease. Museums, theaters, and other public venues made vaccines a mandated requirement for entry. Of course, for children the approval of vaccines wouldn’t be had until well into the fall of 2021. One mom wrote in distressed on Twitter: “My son, Leo, now age 10, at the Metropolitan Opera, which now forbids entry to those under 12 until they're vaccinated. Thank you . . . for denying a cultural pleasure to children. Thank you for doing your part running NYC into the ground and for declaring your fear of kids.”

A concerned mother and daughter wrote to Rational Ground about her situation: “My in-laws will now have not seen their grandchildren for two years because they are afraid. They are afraid to see us because our family is not vaccinated and the children, 12 & 15, will not be at any point. My in-laws are both fully vaccinated themselves. They are addicted to media fear porn and clearly do not trust the product they took yet will never admit that. I am at the point where they will be told they risk losing their grandchildren. I won’t withhold them, but the kids will be busier as they mature and will move on with their lives.”

As of this writing kids are the last bastion of society still fully masked in many instances. Vaccine mandates are lifted, retail mandates for masking are lifted but we still mask three and four-year-olds with vigor. These same preschoolers take naps during the day. Do they mask when lying next to each other, lying still for two hours and sleeping? No – that would be dangerous.