Foreboding as classes resume in Council Rock schools

To the Council Rock Board of School Directors:
Tomorrow, my children are walking into a school with zero protection provided by you.
Tomorrow, my children will wear masks and will sit isolated at lunch, while many of their classmates will do neither of those things. They will feel like second class citizens and will potentially be bullied by other students, as we have already sadly seen.
Tomorrow, a Covid positive student can be sitting right next to my unvaccinated daughters, with no space between them and no mask on the other student’s face to protect my daughters.
Tomorrow, my daughters’ friends will not be in school with them because their parents made the difficult decision to pull them out of school after five of you decided it was your right to put our children in danger in a building where they should be safely learning.
Tomorrow, my daughters’ classmate’s family will be praying that students and teachers in their classrooms will wear masks because they have a younger child at home undergoing cancer treatment and they cannot use cyber school or private school options. So they are sending their children into your reckless trap, fearful of what will be brought home to their compromised family.

Tomorrow, another student in our district who has bravely fought cancer and was finally supposed to return to school will now sit alone at home because the risk is too high and you failed to protect every student and provide a safe learning environment for all of our kids.
Tomorrow, countless parents in our district will begin praying daily that our children do not get seriously ill when they contract this virus in school. Because with Delta and with zero mitigation, they will contract it. We will also begin praying that when our children do contract it, they do not make anyone in our families severely ill. Because we are all now vulnerable despite whatever precautions we have chosen to take to protect our families on our own.
CHOP’s Covid unit is reportedly now full. Full of children with Covid. The “zero” pediatric Covid beds “speech” presented at the board meeting during public comments was irrelevant, as no local hospitals in Bucks County have pediatric beds. They send pediatric cases to children’s hospitals like CHOP in Philadelphia.
For your sake, I hope tomorrow and every day after that is not the day that one of our district students succumbs to this virus. Because whatever happens tomorrow is on you.
Rachel Handfinger, Northampton Township

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