Keeping our schools closed the worst kind of chutzpah

Pediatrician says NM, nation should follow safe examples around globe

Chutzpah! A colorful yiddish word now commonplace in the American vernacular. For many it simply means audacity. But like most yiddish words, its richness surpasses English descriptors. In the negative connotation it denotes having nerve or insolence, but in the positive it implies having courage, guts and mettle.

No language conveys emotion quite like yiddish. I mean, who among us hasn’t written or read a big “schpiel” on social media when some “schmuck” politician is giving us their usual “schtick?” How many of us parents have recently complained about “schlepping” our kids off to school? This one, for almost an entire year now only applies to a privileged few. Allow me now to articulate a few cases of negative chutzpah:

1. Politicians, school boards and administrators pontificating about equity in education while presenting no creative school reopening solutions for the most disadvantaged students, all while deluding themselves that remote learning is an adequate substitute — chutzpah!

2. These same groups having clear knowledge of successful safe school openings in Europe, Asia, Canada, other states and private schools in our own towns, while keeping New Mexico’s public schools closed — chutzpah!

3. Allowing both gyms and daycares/ preschools to operate with convincing data of limited COVID-19 spread but refusing to open public schools — chutzpah!

4. Pretending to prioritize child welfare during a time when they are most threatened by physical, emotional and educational abuse/neglect, while closing the one safe place they all had to attend despite ample data proving schools are safe and not a significant source of spread — chutzpah!

5. Doing all these things despite CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and WHO guidelines advising otherwise — well that goes beyond chutzpah, that’s just criminal.

I could go on to say that studies have demonstrated cases of COVID-19 in teachers in places where schools have been operating in-person are no greater than that of the general population. There has been no increase in spread tied to school openings — meaning schools are not a primary driver of outbreaks — even without teachers being vaccinated. I could say that the death and hospitalization rate for children with COVID-19 pales in comparison with the seasonal flu. I could also say that as a pediatrician I have seen a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression as a result of these measures. But sadly, our leaders already know these facts and they have fallen on deaf ears.

The French intellectual BernardHenri Levy argues that America has abdicated its role as leader of the free world. Levy tells us that the world used to look to America to set an example to follow, and it no longer does. Our state’s draconian school COVID-19 policies have me convinced that he is correct. While Europe, Asia and Canada have nimbly adapted to the pandemic to design creative, safe avenues for in-person learning, here in New Mexico we haven’t even tried. We’ve yielded to the inertia of fear, politics and apathy despite evidence demonstrating a path forward. We have voluntarily failed our children all while knowing other places have found a way. Yet somehow our leaders have the audacity to say the words “science” and “transparency” with a straight face.

So let’s inject some positive chutzpah into our state and get our priorities straight. Our children — not just the privileged few attending private schools — need us. We should be grateful that this pandemic affects children so minimally. Not only are they generally protected from severe illness, but they are rarely vectors. Punishing them by keeping them in riskier situations with severe physical and mental consequences is nonsensical and counterproductive at best, and catastrophic at worst.

I’m calling on the powers that be to show courage, step up and open schools. Let’s have some chutzpah — the positive kind.