Dear Editor:

There has been this constant extreme push to get the schools open and lately, it has become a loud demand. However, I haven’t heard how these same demanding people are trying to make it safer. As a former teacher with two grandchildren in school, a daughter who is a teacher and another daughter working from home and homeschooling her child, I witness and understand the hardships. On the other hand, the one thing that the demandants don’t understand is the fear, hard work and sacrifice that the teachers face trying to make it safe for the children. Today is the morning after the Super Bowl and on the national news, there was a story about an eight year old girl who died from COVID and immediately following the story was 15 minutes of video showing street mobs and bars full of unmasked people spewing their deadly virus all over everyone so the other unmasked cheerful people can take it home to their families, coworkers and everyone else they come in contact with including their own children. These are the same people that demand that their children be in school. These “I don’t care if I kill people” celebrants along with the politicians who want to impress their beer buddies by forcing schools to open full time have created and add to the problem when the teachers are getting the blame and criticism. Take for example, our 7th district congressman, Tom Tiffany. The following headline and first line is from a newspaper article dated June 12, 2020 about a month after he was first elected, “Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s newly elected congressman, wastes no time in declaring war on education in the middle of a pandemic. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican congressman, introduced legislation Thursday that would cut off schools’ federal funding if they do not reopen by Sept. 8.” (2020). There was not a word about how to do it safely. Our local state representative, Jesse James, has fought every virus mitigation attempt that Governor Evers has tried to put in place. I emailed him and asked him to vote no on rescinding the mask order and his answer was, ' Thank you for your email. I understand your concerns about the mask mandate and ending the Governor’s Emergency Order. However, this issue isn’t about masks. It is about government powers, authority, and overreach.” The following news quote is my favorite because it tells it all. It states, “‘I don't care if (the governor’s) actions are warranted or not warranted, he is illegally acting,’ said state Sen. Chris Kapenga, a Republican who opposes the governor’s mask order.” This callous attitude goes all the way back to January 2020 when Trump knew how dangerous the virus was and lied about it, giving others the permission to lie to the rest of the county. Unfortunately, when you tell a lie to some people often enough, they think it is a fact or they just don’t care. To them, the sacrifice of a few teachers and kids is just collateral damage. It is extremely important that the children get back in school but it is just important to make it safe. It is the people who deliberately won’t follow the safety protocol and the uncaring politicians who won’t guide or fund the protocols who are mainly responsible. One thing that the politicians could do is get the teachers vaccinated NOW. It takes up to 6 or 7 weeks for the body to build up full immunity after the first shot, 4 weeks until the second shot and 2 or 3 weeks after that for the body to build full immunity. If teachers don’t get the vaccine until middle or end of March, they will not be fully immune until middle of May or the end of the school year. I am very skeptical about the studies that claim that it is safe to send the kids back full time. Not knowing who did the studies and how they were done is a big question mark. How many schools and how large? What did they take into account? Did they take into account the infection rate of the community? The teachers want the schools open full time. They have children and they know how important it is for those children to be in school. They just don’t want to risk their lives or the children’s lives to do it. I haven’t heard of a serious COVID illness from local schools but nationally there are plenty of examples. The teachers and children should not be collateral damage. Let the teachers get the COVID vaccine ASAP.

Sharon Roberge