Oh, the emails were a-flyin' today.
Yesterday, a student came to school with a doctor's note saying he/she didn't have to wear a mask. Now, any other doctor's note that comes to school, we obey it without hesitation. Student can't take tests for 10 weeks because of a concussion? No problem! Student needs to leave class every day for 10 minutes for a "mental health break"? No problem! But let a kid bring a note saying they don't have to wear a mask, and teachers become medical professionals. One of the teachers at my school wants to determine for him/herself if the medical excuse is valid, and claims to be free of the obligation to comply with the instructions if he/she determines the note is bogus.
Getting doctor's notes is apparently a thing in a nearby district:
Dozens of students are dropping their face masks at school thanks to a medical exemption.
Almost all of them are coming from just one doctor, but the school district says there’s nothing it can do about it. Parents and the district now question why so many mask exemptions are coming from one local doctor.
The phone has been ringing off the hook at Dr. Michael Huang’s Roseville office.
“We are fully booked up for the next three months, I can definitely get you in,” his receptionist Ashley said on the phone.
They’re all looking for the same thing: a medical mask exemption...
CBS13 asked Dr. Huang whether these exemptions are legitimate and whether those students actually need mask exemptions.
“The mask exemption letter, the one we do provide, each every one of them is after careful clinical exam and given appropriately,” he said...
But Eureka School District parent Dr. Chris Lillis worries about the immunocompromised kids in his child’s 5th-grade classroom.
“I’m exasperated because I feel like it’s such a small gesture to wear a mask to protect the health of someone who is less fortunate, and more vulnerable than we may be,” he said.
I call B.S. on the whole "immunocompromised" thing. The immunocompromised have always been among us, are currently among us, and will continue to be among us forever more. Until the 'rona they have never expected anything else from anyone else, they took their own precautions. "It's such a small gesture to wear a mask"--if it's a "gesture", I opt out. I love how people want to make me look like the bad guy for wanting to live my normal life normally while, in the name of the tiniest minority that has always been among us, are now more than happy to impose upon me how I should live my life.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, compulsion has always been a strong suit of the lefties.
But back to my story--we have teachers at my school who want to segregate the non-mask-wearers (nope, can't do that either), and now the local union is getting involved. The district gives that union way too much influence, but darn it, the teachers don't feel safe and something must be done! (gag)
Yesterday I gave my first instruction of the school year, as well as the first homework assignments. It was shocking, shocking, how even my most advanced fell apart and were completely unable to understand a Day 1 homework assignment (none of which covered material they hadn't supposedly learned before). Several students dropped the course today, after 1 day. More drops are no doubt on the way.
In essence, these students haven't been in school for a year and a half, and it shows. The shutdown has been a disaster, an absolute disaster for education, and no one wants to accept the magnitude of the problem. That's another good reason just to shut the schools down again--so we don't have to face the problem right now.
If I were a betting man, I'd say we'll shut down in September.
Update, 8/18/21: Some schools are beating mine to the punch:
Just days into the new school year, thousands of kids are under quarantine in public school districts across the U.S. after being exposed to COVID-19.
I've got students at home who have "been exposed".
Update, 8/21/21: One of my school's union reps sent an email telling us that one of our school board members has filed a complaint against Dr. Huang with the medical board here in the DPRK. What a Karen.
I'm an adult. I have asthma and chronic bronchitis in addition to seasonal allergies. Breathing for me is difficult under the best of conditions. Wearing a mask makes me cough MORE. Wearing a mask gives me chronic headaches. Wearing a mask causes dizziness due to lack of oxygen. I've had COVID. I've had the shots. On just a short two hour flight from Vegas to Dallas, I had to use my emergency inhaler three times. Needless to say I won't be traveling by plane anywhere until this mask ban is lifted. I don't think I'm alone. I see seniors who are struggling with masks as they walk through the store.I see it on the glazed eyes of tiny children whose breathing is compromised at best. Fresh air, the exchange of oxygen in the body, is necessary for good health. Riding a bike outdoors with a mask is dumb. Driving around in a car alone with a mask is dumber. Driving around in a car along wearing a mask with the windows open is the dumbest of all. Please, educate yourselves. Either this vaccine works or it does not. But cloth masks have next to no protection, so where's the up side?
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