Letter: Our focus must be on education, not division

Posted 12/23/21

To the editor: I am an extremely concerned and frustrated parent of three in the district. As a community and school district we have lost focus, and in doing so we are only hurting our children. We …

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Letter: Our focus must be on education, not division

Posted

To the editor:

I am an extremely concerned and frustrated parent of three in the district. As a community and school district we have lost focus, and in doing so we are only hurting our children. We are further dividing them, the teachers and our community. What happened to building a strong academic foundation and helping prepare our students for the future?

All I hear lately is the unvaccinated against the vaccinated, the masked against the unmasked and the accusations of being racist and non-racist. This is division, this is discrimination and this is not okay.

There is an English room in MHHS with a poster up that says “VAX it, MASK it or CASKET”. This is spreading fear, anxiety and misinformation. Zero people under the age of 24 have died from COVID in RI.

When the principal was asked about this poster she did say it was an assignment, but all posters were not put up? Who decides who puts these posters up, and if it is freedom of speech, then ALL children's posters should be up.

We have lost all focus on educating our children. The concern seems to be with vaccines, masks and quarantine policing. Treating the vaccinated and unvaccinated differently is discrimination. I know it has been a very long two years and everyone is trying to keep our children's best interest in mind but can this community honestly say that what we are doing right now is in the best interest of our children? Masking, quarantining with no live instruction and promoting division over this virus.

Out of the first nine weeks of school my son missed three WEEKS, not days, due to being quarantined as a close contact. With no distance learning available to him, that means zero instruction. Just lessons sent home in the hopes that he was able to teach himself. This is unacceptable.

So many of our students are working hard just to stay afloat. What are we doing to help these children that are being quarantined daily? There needs to be LIVE distance learning available to the children who are quarantined. As a parent, hearing that distance learning is being called a “distraction” is absurd. What is a real distraction is playing constant catch up as a teacher, student and parent.

Instead of focusing on educating our children and preparing them for their future to the best of our ability, we are so focused on COVID, and spreading hate and division. This is embarrassing.

If anyone is to blame for the absurdity in this district it is us, the adults, allowing this to continue. Our school committee was elected to work together and help our children receive the best education they can. They were not elected to be friends. They were not elected to necessarily like each other, or even agree with each other completely, but they were elected to listen to each other, learn from one another and do the best for all of our children. Not just your children, not just my children, but all children.

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