School reopening is no game

On Monday, Frank Edelblut tweeted this quote from Game of Thrones: “Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well.”

I’m no GOT scholar, but this is pretty dark. When summer ends in the series, death is inevitable for many characters. I thought it was an honest misunderstanding of the quote, but after hearing the governor’s plan for schools this fall, I am not so sure.

The governor’s “flexible,” “swiss cheese” plan, ensures many childhoods will indeed end soon enough in one way or another, either through unnecessary stress about safety precautions, worrying about getting or spreading the virus, getting sick, or death. For many kids, these are already worries, why would we purposefully send them into more chaos instead of focus on better remote options?

It’s to further a political agenda of privatization of public school. The governor and commissioner are putting families, teachers, and district leaders in impossible situations that will end up pitting neighbor against neighbor and divide communities that should be coming together in this very unusual time of crisis. This division is the perfect tool to dismantle public schools once and for all, and clear a path for privatization, leaving kids who are already marginalized by the system further harmed.

This guidance document is a political opportunity and does not reflect care for the health and well-being of our most precious community members or their teachers. Students and teachers are not fictional characters in Game of Thrones. We deserve better from these leaders.

CARISA CORROW

Penacook