LETTER: It is irresponsible to lock our students away in fear of Covid

To Ozaukee Press:
        Schools should reopen this September. I am sure we can all agree protecting children from the risks and dangers life presents, and that locking them away with the intent of saving them from Covid-19 is irresponsible.
    As the Covid experiment continues throughout the world there are more data points to consider. As an example, Europe has shown success in opening schools without increasing infection rates or mortality. There is also data to suggest school aged children are less likely to transmit Covid.
    As we have passed through the initial students-stay-at-home period, data along with anecdotal evidence from parents and students show our education system and home environments lack the expertise and infrastructure to support effective online teaching. As we prepare our young people to compete in a global economy, we need to seek to optimize education, not dumb it down to accommodate our fears.
    For those who outsource their decisions to the higher authorities and demand everyone believe in the science, please bare in mind it’s more and more difficult to ascertain what is truth and what is information modeled to support a bias. When us none believers and free thinkers aren’t lock-step with the cause of the day, the questions come from a natural desire to rectify inconstancy as we are bombarded with information and a narrative that is clearly based upon political bias.
    A word of warning to the education bureaucracy: If in-person classroom instruction is disposable in a very controllable and manageable situation, than maybe we can do without from this point further.
Richard Sternhagen
Port Washington