Change.org has been home to many acts of positive social change powered by the people. Some of its victories include ALS patients no longer having to face a waiting period for receiving critical benefits, honoring the wrongful death of Dallas resident Botham Jean by naming a street after him, reducing sentences or granting clemency for wrongful criminal convictions, and soon to be District 113 getting its kids back in school.
This petition has been backed by the respected doctor Jonathan Sins MD. Asked if going back to school would solve mental health issues, Sins, an esteemed kinesiologist, replied, “Several studies show that hybrid learning has reduced poor learning retention, lack of motivation, depression, obesity, video game & porn addiction, communist thought, and chlamydia by 99%.” Plus, we all know that these problems never existed in American teenagers until the pandemic. What’s better for a student’s mental health than being in a mostly empty classroom with a teacher who is not allowed to interact with you because they are required to stay at their computer? This is, of course, considering that interactions with other students must be minimal. The writer of the petition strongly echoed the sentiments of Dr. Sins, stating “Other than my skiing vacation to Colorado and the dozen or so parties I’ve gone to since the beginning of the school year, I’ve had almost no personal interaction with anyone which is just really bumming me out.”
According to the Change.org petition from multiple doctors (with specializations that are basically as good as an epidemiologist), “Superintendent Dr. Bruce Law has presented no data or evidence [to support e-learning]. The District has had almost 8 months to develop a working plan that is sustainable and is fluid based on metrics.” Although the petition writer did not acknowledge any part of Dr. Law’s plan to return to school presented at the board meetings which is both sustainable, fluid, and based on metrics, the FlipSide is still throwing their support behind the petition. We asked the writer of the petition for comment on January 6th, who responded they would get back to us after a trip to our nation’s capitol. We have yet to hear back from them. Regardless, you can’t help but understand why they didn’t attend Dr. Law’s board meetings. Clearly, doing their research is against their values, or else they would actually be learning during online school. Personally, I don’t want to make my decisions based on what these fancy, politically motivated “scientists” tell us we should do. I’m a free thinker, an American, I can do what’s best for me and my body and it definitely doesn’t affect other people.
We, the people of Deerfield High School, demand to be brought back to in-person schooling. Put frankly, I don’t care if COVID spreads through the community from the irresponsible actions of students. It would be for the greater good of our social-emotional health. And isn’t that what’s really important?
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