Record-high number of suicidal children forces San Francisco to sue its own school district to reopen



Following an alarming number of child suicides and suicide attempts, the city of San Francisco is suing its own school district to reopen.

The University of California-San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital at Mission Bay reported record-high numbers of suicidal children seen and treated last month. "The UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital has seen a 66% increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room, and a 75% increase in youth who required hospitalization for mental health services, the lawsuit said, quoting pediatricians, child psychiatrists and emergency room doctors," USA Today reported. Doctors also saw an increase in anxiety, depression, and eating disorders among children.

The lawsuit calls for San Francisco's public schools to reopen, saying classroom closures are "catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children." Schools have been closed for in-person learning since March.

The lawsuit filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera includes "alarming testimony from hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area, doctors, and parents on the emotional and mental harms of extended distance learning."

"The medical evidence is clear that keeping public schools closed is catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children in San Francisco," Dr. Jeanne Noble, director of COVID Response for the UCSF Emergency Department, said.

One San Francisco parent said her 7-year-old son had "uncontrollable meltdowns that turn (the) whole house upside down." Meanwhile, her 10-year-old daughter is exhibiting "depression and anger." The mother believes her daughter's "mental health will continue to suffer" as long as she is kept out of the classroom.

Another mother said her 15-year-old daughter cries often, is frustrated, and "losing faith not just in [San Francisco Unified School District] SFUSD but in the world."

The lawsuit highlighted that 114 of San Francisco's private, parochial, and charter schools have reopened to 15,831 students and about 2,400 staff. Those schools have had fewer than five cases of suspected in-person transmission, according to the lawsuit.

"Distance learning is a form of instruction; it is not school," the lawsuit says. The suit argues that children need the emotional, social, and developmental skills that can only be learned in-person. The lawsuit says that denying students to go to school "constitutes a substantial violation of their constitutional rights."

"SFUSD and teachers' union leadership need to step up. Get your act together, [district] leadership has earned an F," Herrera said. "It's unfortunate we have to take them to court to get it sorted out, but enough is enough."

Public health officials gave the green light for schools to reopen in September, but the district and teachers unions have not been able to reach an agreement to reopen classrooms. The San Francisco Unified School District's Board of Education did have time to bar a gay parent from being appointed to the Parent Advisory Council because he was white. School officials also found time to begin a campaign to rename several San Francisco schools that are deemed "inappropriate," including Presidents George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

"We wholeheartedly agree that students are better served with in-person learning," the school district's spokeswoman, Laura Dudnick, said on Thursday. "Bringing students back to school in a large public school district is very complex and requires partnership."

"We are eager for the city to make vaccines available to our staff," Dudnick said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines on how schools should reopen, and the health agency declared that school reopenings should not be conditional on having teachers and faculty vaccinated.

In July, Dr. Robert Redfield, the now-former director of the CDC, warned about the psychological damage that lockdowns and remote schooling could inflict on children.

"But there has been another cost that we've seen, particularly in high schools," he said. "We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."

The former CDC director also said in July that he would "100%" have his grandchildren go back to school.

Last month, the nation's fifth-largest school district declared that it wants to reopen as "quickly as possible" following a rash of student suicides. Clark County School District in Nevada saw double the amount of student suicides in nine months this year compared to all of last year.

Horowitz: Norwegian study shows very little transmission in school without masks, as suicide crisis intensifies



Shutting down schools or forcing kids to wear masks – either one is likely the greatest crime ever committed against children under the most false pretenses imaginable. New research continues to show that schools are not drivers of spread, not to mention the fact that the virus is not dangerous to children. Meanwhile, children continue to commit suicide in record numbers. This is the evil cost of adult virtue-signaling.

A brand-new study of transmission in Norwegian primary schools from August through November published by the Norwegian Public Institute of Health showed minimal child-to-child and child-to-adult transmission. "This prospective study shows that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from children under 14 years of age was minimal in primary schools in Oslo and Viken, the two Norwegian counties with the highest COVID-19 incidence and in which 35% of the Norwegian population resides," concluded the researchers.

Despite systematic testing of all the 234 child contacts twice during quarantine of those children infected, just two primary cases and no secondary cases were identified. Also, among the 58 adult contacts of the infected children, just one primary case and no secondary cases were detected. All the children involved in the study were ages 5-13.

Here's the kicker: While the reopening of the schools included measures such as "strengthened hygiene measures, physical distancing and a clear message to stay home if symptomatic, even with mild symptoms," there was one major element missing. "Use of face masks is not recommended in schools in Norway," according to this study.

The study further contradicted the notion that somehow teachers are more at risk than people from other professions, a false premise that has led to some states prioritizing the vaccination of young teachers over elderly non-teachers. "This supports findings in Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway that teachers are not at higher risk of COVID-19 compared with other professions," wrote the Norwegian researchers.

It is truly shocking how consistent the data have been for months that children are not a threat of spreading the virus, yet the politicians have continued to keep children out of school. Well, at least until now – that Trump is out of office. Suddenly, most Democrat politicians, who now have an incentive not to saddle the Biden regime with a bad economy, are pushing for children to return to school. However, conservatives need to be vigilant about the left co-opting what it means to open schools. Opening schools while needlessly masking children for seven hours a day and constantly living in a state of fear might not be much better than keeping schools closed.

Now that Trump is out of office, it's kosher for outlets like CNN and the NYT to begin reporting on the child suicide crisis. CNN reported last week that in Texas, 37 students were admitted to a Fort Worth hospital following suicide attempts in September alone and that 19 students in Las Vegas actually committed suicide. The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that one Alaska clinic saw a 173% increase in admission of children with severe injuries due to suspected child abuse last year. Suicides are now the leading cause of death in England. You no longer need to go to conservative websites to discover the truth about the mental health crisis triggered by lockdowns.

The gratuitous panic and fear embodied by masking and other draconian measures are destroying the mental health of an entire generation. Even in Florida, where people are freer than in most parts of the country, a recent report shows that suicide was more deadly to the under-55 population in Tallahassee than the virus itself.

The masking, aside from the long-term harms to child development and communications, is the single biggest reminder for kids to live in fear. Opening schools with masking is not proper schooling; it's a concentration camp. Teachers would have been sent to jail a year ago for suggesting such an idea. We should not jump on the first opportunity just to open schools at all costs and forget about the conditions to which they are subjecting the children.

The same data that show there is no meaningful viral threat from schoolchildren demonstrate that they need not be masked. Not only is the virus not a threat to children, nor are they a threat of spreading it in school, but this year's flu cases are down 99.5%. As such, there has never been a safer time for children to be in school, even relative to every other year in recent history. Republican governors shouldn't let Democrats insidiously co-opt the talking point of reopening schools now that Trump is gone. It's time to force them to reopen schools without the child abuse. The mask religion should not be exempt from following the science.

Virginia's Fairfax County teachers union demands schools remain closed until August 2021, possibly longer



The teachers union of Fairfax County in Virginia wants schoolchildren to learn from home for the rest of the school year until August 2021.

"Science and Health Safety data support and require that no one should return to in person instruction until there is a widely available scientifically proven vaccine or highly effective treatment" for COVID-19, the Fairfax Education Association wrote in a letter-campaign addressed to the Fairfax County school board and superintendent.

"The metric for Safe Reopening should be 14 days of zero community spread," the letter stated.

The Fairfax County teacher’s union wants all public schools closed at least until August 2021. @FCPSSupt https://t.co/CuLCXRCGOV
— Rory Cooper (@Rory Cooper)1603197655.0

In addition to closing schools through the 2020-21 school year, the teachers union demanded that limited reopening be attempted only if "all buildings" are equipped with "HVAC Merv-13 filters," if all staff is provided with "Medical Grade PPE" including N95 masks, goggles, face shields, and more, and if COVID-19 testing is available for staff.

"Since none of the requirements for safe return are likely to be met in the foreseeable future of the 2020-21 school year we reiterate: Keep Fairfax County Public Schools Virtual for the 2020-21 school year," the letter concluded.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand last week published an update for parents explaining when and how in-person learning in schools will resume. The plan is to begin in-person instruction for small groups of students who are having the most difficulty with distance learning.

"We will follow strict safety and health protocols to minimize health risks for students and staff," the school said.

On Monday, classroom learning began for preschoolers with autism, students in "early childhood classes, and students in specialized high school career preparatory programs." The district plans to phase in other students returning to school in different groups over the next several weeks. They have put in place several policies to limit the spread of COVID-19 as students and teachers return to class.

The union's demands come as mounting evidence suggests there is no clear link between schools reopening and coronavirus infection rates surging. Additionally, there are growing concerns that so-called "distance learning," with children staring at computer screens for most of the day, is failing children and parents who can't handle it.

In New York City, an epicenter of the pandemic where reopening is limited and conditional on targeted random virus testing efforts, the New York Times reports expected outbreaks among the city's 1,800 public schools have not materialized in the three-weeks since in-person learning resumed.

Yet, the Free Beacon notes, a Brown University study showed that districts with strong teachers unions, like Fairfax County, were more likely to recommend schools remain closed. In a statement to the Free Beacon, the Fairfax County Public Schools district said school officials maintain returning to the classroom is best for students.

"We firmly believe that while virtual environments are necessary at the current time, students learn best in-person," a district spokeswoman said.

School reopening in the United States varies by state and individual school district. So far, only Arizona, Iowa, Florida, and Texas have ordered schools to open.

Horowitz: NYT is ‘surprised’ by obvious lack of viral spread in schools that opened



In March, schools in nearly every state did the unthinkable: They shut their doors for months, thereby destroying the social lives and education of a generation of children — all for a virus that poses no statistical threat to them. Now, weeks (and in some places, even months) after certain schools have reopened, the entire fear of kids as super-spreaders turned out to be a fabrication. While some of us knew this from day one and could have saved a generation of children months of despair, the New York Times finds it "surprising."

On Monday, the NYT reported that despite fears that New York's 1,800 public schools would serve as death traps, "nearly three weeks into the in-person school year, early data from the city's first effort at targeted testing has shown the opposite: a surprisingly small number of positive cases." The city received the results of 16,298 random tests throughout the public schools and found just 20 staff members who tested positive. How many students? Just eight — in all of New York City! And there's no evidence of serious illness among them.

It's not as if the virus is not spreading in the community. The schools reopened just as a resurgence of the virus became apparent in Brooklyn and Queens, yet there were just four positives out of over 3,300 tests in those two boroughs.

Rather than focusing on balancing nursing home safety and family visitation through mass testing, Gov. Cuomo is wasting testing resources by randomly testing 10%-20% of the public school's population every month, all for a virus that clearly does not spread much among children and certainly does not pose a greater risk to them than the typical pathogens they pick up every year in school.

"The emerging scientific consensus is that younger children do not spread the virus as easily as older children and adults," wrote the Times in an article titled, "Surprising Results in Initial Virus Testing in N.Y.C. Schools."

Well, no kidding. We could have told you that in the spring and saved months of lost education for kids and work hours for parents. Among over a dozen studies and data analysis from different countries showing that young children do not spread the virus (they get it from their parents at home), Icelandic researchers sequenced all the genomes from samples of every positive case in the country and failed to find a single instance of a child infecting parents.

The fact that so few children are infected in schools is truly astounding given the widespread outbreak of cases in communities in the majority of states this month. Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University, created a dashboard of 300 schools offering in-person classes. She found just 10 cases per 100,000 among students, and that rate has held steady into October despite the growing community spread.

What's become obvious from the body of data on schools and day cares is that even the low numbers of cases in schools aren't being spread in schools, but from home. If children were spreading to each other at the same rate adults do, we would find entire classes infected.

A recent survey of over 57,000 day care providers in the U.S. published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found no association between exposure to child care and a diagnosis of COVID-19.

Given that the jury is in and the verdict is rendered, how are there still so many schools closed indefinitely? The teachers' union in Fairfax County, Virginia, wants schools closed for the remainder of this school year. According to Professor Oster's database, there were just six student infections per 100,000 in Virginia during the first two weeks of October.

Moreover, why are children being abused with social isolation and mask-wearing for hours on end? Supporters of these measures might suggest that these regulatory rituals are the key to keeping the numbers low. But the reality is that we are not seeing the mask-wearing work among adults in any other setting. The number of infections among schoolchildren remains low, even as the numbers in the communities skyrocket, despite universal mask-wearing.

According to Pew Research, as of August, 80%-90% of residents of most regions reported regularly wearing masks. Those numbers have only grown as the mandates and the social norms and pressures have intensified over time.

Joe Biden said at the first debate that if we had universal mask-wearing, then deaths could be cut in half. But we have already had these mandates in place for months, and almost everyone is complying. So why are kids not spreading it while everyone else is? If anything, kids would be less likely to maintain proper hygiene and protocol while wearing masks than adults.

Furthermore, if you look at any data among schools that have reopened, you will find that the rate of infection is much higher among the staff, who are wearing masks just as religiously (and likely, more properly) as children. According to Professor Oster's dashboard, the infection rate for staff is 2.5 times higher than for children. And whereas the rate among children is flat, the rate among staff is going up with the community spread.

Finally, in a similar vein, we are seeing exponential spreading among college kids, despite very strict mask and social distancing mandates. Now, obviously, it's nothing but a casedemic – with nearly no hospitalizations and zero deaths – but the fact that it's spreading prolifically among school staff and among college students who wear masks, but not among younger children, demonstrates that there is a natural phenomenon playing out here, not human input.

Clearly, children do not spread the virus, but merely get the virus from their community, whereas adults in school spread the virus commensurate to the level of community spread.

This point is starkly evident in the data from Wisconsin. The Badger State saw the biggest spread in the nation coinciding with the opening of schools. The result? Yes, the infection rate among Wisconsin's schoolchildren did increase from 14 per 100,000 to 18 from mid-September to early October. But among the staff, it increased from 29 to 84! That demonstrates that school openings play no role in the spread and that the numbers are a reflection of the community spread, which mainly affects adults. The relatively few kids who get the virus would have gotten it from their parents or community regardless of whether they were in school, not from other students.

So, what is it going to take to restore the lives of our children? Certainly not data and science, because the shutdown and masking of young children was never driven by science to begin with.

Parents protest Cuomo's decision to shut down more school in New York City

Parents stated that their children are in need of in-person classes and that remote learning alternatives are simply not making the grade.