Anti-lockdown campaigners using children to push their agenda

[noblegiraffe]

I can't be the only one disgusted with how certain groups are using faux concern about children to push the earliest dismantling of lockdown restrictions.

They are loudly catastrophising on the front pages of the press about our kids. The lost generation. £40,000 in lost earnings. Articles about schools full of traumatised kids suffering PTSD caused by lockdown.

And the solution they propose is always to re-open schools as early as possible. Even before March 8th. Regardless of covid.

Now, the situation in schools before Christmas was awful. Some areas of the country had less than 50% attendance due to the new variant ripping through secondary schools. Secondary school kids were the most infected subset of the population by far, and are now the second least infected subset of the population behind the 70+ age group after schools were closed, demonstrating that there was a massive problem with transmission in secondary schools. It wasn't good for pupils' mental health or education to be in a situation when they didn't know if they'd be in school or out at the drop of a hat. But before Christmas, there was complete media silence on the impact that this was having on children.

CAMHS has been devastated by cuts. Waiting lists are intolerable and children in dire need of support don't even qualify. Same for social care around vulnerable children.

Yet you won't hear these people clamouring for schools re-opening as soon as possible talking at all about how to improve safety measures in schools to prevent the scenario we had before Christmas happening again. You won't hear them demanding more funding for children's mental health services and for more support for social care services.

And the reason you won't hear that is that THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

The reason that they want schools re-opened as quickly as possible is because the message was that schools had to open first.

They can't get what they really want open (everything else) until schools are open, hence the massive focus on schools and how terrible things are for children.

This catastrophising isn't good for parents or kids. It's scaremongering and unhelpful.

I know that there are kids (and parents) really struggling with their mental health and worried about their education. Blaring out messages about how terrible things are and how they will never recover because you want to hype up the message about schools going back is irresponsible and sickening.

We need sensible and calm conversations about how to support children and parents. We need funding for schools and massive investment in support services. We need a long-term program of recovery, not 9 months of a Catch-Up Tsar and quick fixes. We need a measured and sensible approach to schools re-opening that won't see kids in and out and in and out due to lack of mitigation measures causing rampant covid spread (particularly with the new variant).

We need these anti-lockdown campaigners to shut up and stop dominating the narrative.

@HesterShaw1

A woman local to me in her 40s with three young children killed herself the other day. Couldn't take this situation any more.

Still..."faux concern about children".

Your dismissive tone is genuinely revolting.

Equally a friend of mine 39 years old, died from covid in the new year after her children tested positive for covid due to an outbreak in their school. No underlying health conditions. So why should mental health trump physical health ? There should be a balance between both because at the end of the day the children of both these young women are now suffering.

[quote Monkeytennis97]@DuchessofHastings1 where has this been published please?[/quote]
The hospital admissions and deaths are available on the Public health website. I'm hungover and cant be arsed going through all the reports to find everything but it's there. I found this one I had already downloaded. The majority are over 50s.

@FrippEnos

HesterShaw1

And yet its true.

I have every respect for parents that are going through this

Where were all these political groups that care about about children's mental health when the the government were

Reducing money to Camhs.
Redefining the meaning of SEND so that they could reduce funds.
Removing schools funds for inclusion/SEND departments
Removing SENDCOs due to cost.
Reducing the amount of Statements and replacing them with even harder to get ECHPs.
Removing statements from children because they didn't fit the new descriptions.
When teachers and health care professionals where stating that the pressure on children in schools was detrimental to the mental health and well being of pupils.
and so much more.

And what do you expect to happen when the pupils go back, with the longer hours and shorter holidays and no increase in funding for SEND or mental health.

This! 👏

Government especially tories don't care about children with additional needs.

Early interventions of sure starts, health visitors, school nurses mostly invisible now! Kids aren't getting any professional help until they are in school and then it's an 18 month wait!

Our local primary is mainstream but is like a special school, they have 5/6 children with additional needs per class ,many severe and only 1 TA per class! It's unmanageable and unsafe and we then wonder why children aren't making the progress or are stressed. That isn't against inclusion, inclusion can work. But delays for professional help, little help available, lack of funds in school for staff, all have an impact

But some of us see the much bigger picture and aren't USING children, we are genuinely sad and worried for them.

I am sad and worried for all children who have been negatively affected by school closures (as it happens, mine is doing better at home than he was at school). However, I still believe it is too early to open schools.

You can be both!

I agree with you op, very well said.

I agree with you OP. Glad to see someone saying it out loud. @Francienolan has summed it up for me.

@DuchessofHastings1

Not parents, no. It's not about parents. Teachers and parents want schools open sensibly and as safely as possible as they are the ones they get the fall out. It's the newspapers/CRG/U4T etc who are going apoplectic at the scientists at the moment for their words of caution.

At what is 'safe' though? Cases are going down, we have a vaccine. It has just been published teachers now are getting priority over the over 50s.

I'm talking about the last sentence here.

@Stickytreacle

100% agree Noble, we were all warned about the disaster that schools opening with no safety measures would be, it happened and there are those clamouring to repeat the idiocy again. Open schools yes, but do it bloody safely! Im sick of lockdown and don't want to be pushed back into one before we hardly get going. Those without kids are sacrificing livelihoods in order to educate the next generation, it isn't only kids that are making sacrifices.

It wasn't a disaster. It was fine. Stop watching the bloody BBC.

@Cantaloupeisland

Absolutely faux concern - where was the concern for the kids who spent three quarters of last term isolating rather than in school due to constant positive cases in their year groups? Where was the media outrage about their disrupted education? Where has the concern for children's mental health been over years of underfunding and cuts to services?

Well said.

Oh what a surprise suspended users ITT? Is that not against the rules @MNHQ?

@dividedwefall excellent post far better worded than I could write!
The overriding narrative from the teachers has been very me me me and it's refreshing to see some teachers on here actually have the opposite perspective. I know of a few teachers who refused to sign that letter from the Union. I consider myself quite left leaning and usually very pro Union but I have been disgusted by the behaviour of the teaching unions. Luckily ds primary school has been sensible in their approach to this and have avoided the hysterical fear based narrative. DD at high school not so much and I've emailed the head directly from a senior healthcare and educator perspective. Interestingly the next news letter than was sent out didn't contain any of the usual fear based propaganda but was largely about mental health.

[quote Monkeytennis97]@DuchessofHastings1 you got that link about teachers going ahead of 50 plus year olds? [/quote]
Sorry thought you meant for over 50s deaths etc. Sorry quite hungover

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/11/teachers-police-set-given-covid-vaccine-priority-over-50s/amp/

www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/vaccinate-teachers-keyworkers-labour_uk_60113edec5b6b8719d889d24/

It's only just been around for a couple of days, but it's been on a lot of headlines that teachers and police are set to be vaccinated by April.

@Stickytreacle

100% agree Noble, we were all warned about the disaster that schools opening with no safety measures would be, it happened and there are those clamouring to repeat the idiocy again. Open schools yes, but do it bloody safely! Im sick of lockdown and don't want to be pushed back into one before we hardly get going. Those without kids are sacrificing livelihoods in order to educate the next generation, it isn't only kids that are making sacrifices.

But again, with the 15 most vulnerable vaccinated and the seasonality of the virus how are we anywhere near where we were previously?

Well said Noble

Teachers have been left in the front line of this without any of the protection that other frontline workers take for granted. The one day back before schools closed just sums up how badly this has been handled.

As someone in remission from Cancer I am also fed up with the anti lockdown era also exploiting the emotional weight they can gain by hijacking the cause of Cancer patients. Many who go through Cancer diagnosis and treatment are only too familiar with the way wider society seeks to minimise their experience with all the rhetoric around being “brave, fighting, wear a pink tutu and go for a walk” Now suddenly when the world is suffering as a result of a pandemic that some countries have successfully suppressed by listening to the scientists, suddenly there is all this faux concern for those with Cancer from those who prefer to get their science from dodgy websites on the internet.

One thing I do know is that in spite of everything our doctors and nurses have done their level best to maintain services for those with a Cancer diagnosis or any other life changing illness / accident. You won’t find many Cancer patients saying let it rip through society so as to increase the pressure on them.

And by the way I have had Covid, last March, along with many family and friends, half my neighbours what’s app group and around 1.5 m Londoners who had antibodies by June. Many no longer have those antibodies and at least one was reinfected by the Kent variant. So please don’t start with the herd immunity nonsense. London was even worse affected by the second wave than it was the first in spite of it running through our community in February and March......

I disagree. You don't speak for my children.

I am really concerned for the ‘all in’ come 8th March where there has no changes been made to safety measures in school.

I’ve written my own experiences in past threads but to recap, at my secondary, we did not have all year’s in from as early as end of Sept. Twice we closed fully. We sent year groups home in the middle of days. Our pupils were under incredible stress. They knew sick peers, sick teachers, sick families; they suffered losses.

At home they have a full timetable of lessons. They don’t have to worry about travelling by bus and train in rush hour. Students who were receiving counselling are still having their sessions remotely. Being ‘all in’ was a stressful time in my school last term. Pupils are worried, especially exam years, are worried about returning as they don’t want to be sick for their assessment periods.

15 million even.

People will die.

But we must as a country tighten up our travel/freedom of movement and all these flights entering the country. I mean. It’s crazy.

The reason that they want schools re-opened as quickly as possible is because the message was that schools had to open first

That is bullshit, no one I know thinks like thi, schools are not the gateway to opening everything else. Schools should only be open. Strict restrictions still in place for everything else.

And I have written to my MP more than once depending better care and funding for schools. It’s a disgrace.

I know of a few teachers who refused to sign that letter from the Union
Since "that letter* was never from "the union", there was no need to refuse to sign it.
If someone considers their workplace to be unsafe, they have the right and the responsibility to do something about it.
If it's unsafe for me, it's unsafe for my students. Why is that so very hard fu comprehend?

Hundreds of posts going on about vulnerable children in the last 12 months. Where were these posts in the previous 12 months? Or is it ok for these children as pre-COVID they have 6/7 hours a day at school when they could feel safe, sod the evenings, weekends, school holidays. If all these posters cared so much what are they going to do to help these children when the schools fully open. Because some of their lives will still be shit. Or will they still expect schools to pick up the pieces as usual with no extra funding to help.

@DuchessofHastings1
None of those articles actually say teachers have been (or will be) prioritised. The articles are "Labour calls for teachers priority vaccine".

You are so wrong on this. Children are really suffering. They are being robbed of social interactions, family & friends time, birthday parties, holidays, swimming lessons, music lessons, education (not provided by a harassed parent teaching 3 kids at all different levels). Disabled children have had their therapies and leisure activities cancelled and don't understand why.

It's easy just to think of yourself, your own perception of the situation etc. But some of us see the much bigger picture and aren't USING children, we are genuinely sad and worried for them

What you are completely missing here is that I have two kids that I am worried about. I know exactly what is being missed here.

What my OP is about is those bad-faith groups using kids like mine and yours to argue their own agenda, which is dismantling lockdown. They don't actually give a shit about whether our kids are struggling, because they are not arguing for more funding to make schools safer, or more funding for mental health services, or more funding for smaller class sizes or more TAs, better SEN support.

The only thing they care about is getting schools open. It's number one on a ticklist.