Amid Covid Surge, Students And Teachers Want To Be Heard
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2022
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
There are a lot of opinions about how schools should be run during the pandemic, but some key voices are often missing from the conversation – students and teachers.
Over the last few weeks, amid a nationwide surge of coronavirus cases, students across the country have staged walkouts to emphasize various COVID mitigation measures they would like to see implemented. We'll hear from some of those students.
And we'll speak to a teacher in Arizona who understands how difficult it is, as a parent, community member and school staffer, to find the right balance between physical health, mental health and educational priorities.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good afternoon, everybody. |
| 0:03.0 | Well, it's day one. |
| 0:05.0 | Virginia got a new governor last week, Republican Glenn Youngkin, and he got right to work. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm going to sign 11 executive actions, 9 executive orders and 2 executive directors. |
| 0:17.0 | One of those executive orders essentially overrides the authority of Virginia school districts |
| 0:22.0 | when it comes to one key tool to control the COVID pandemic. |
| 0:25.0 | As we battle COVID, it's parents that should decide the health measures taken for their children. |
| 0:33.0 | That's why I signed an executive order that allows parents to opt out of mask mandates in schools. |
| 0:41.0 | This is a matter of individual liberty. |
| 0:45.0 | In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, signed a similar bill in November. |
| 0:51.0 | I don't know why the masks have politics around it. Let the parents make the decision that's best for their kids. |
| 0:56.0 | If you want the mask, do it. If you don't, don't, that's fine. |
| 0:59.0 | Well, some parents see this as a win for their children. |
| 1:02.0 | They need to see their teachers' mouths move. They need to see their classmates' mouths move. |
| 1:07.0 | Other parents see this very differently. |
| 1:09.0 | In both states, parents have filed lawsuits opposing these policies that essentially make wearing masks optional. |
| 1:15.0 | But in this debate over individual liberty and how much say parents should have on COVID measures in schools, |
| 1:20.0 | there are a few key voices being left out of the conversation. |
| 1:24.0 | The parents who are generally complaining are not in the schools. We are. |
| 1:28.0 | Every day we see this. We are the ones experiencing this. |
| 1:33.0 | Whereas the parents only hear it second hand, maybe third hand. |
| 1:39.0 | Consider this. There are a lot of opinions about how schools should be run during the pandemic. |
... |
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