Recently, millions of elementary and secondary students across the country were, yet once again, in the throes of school closures and reopenings. While most schools opened to in-person learning in January, many experienced disruptions, according to the School Opening Tracker on Burbio.com. Although some temporary closures have been unavoidable because of staffing shortages, widespread shutdowns should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, the cat was let out the bag last year — some districts that opted for complete shutdowns for months at a time were at it again.

It was only two years ago that the pandemic started and governments world-wide enforced lockdowns, relentlessly and without prejudice. Lockdowns were at first considered prudent solutions to safeguard people of all ages because of so many unknowns. But soon after, many began to question the logic of widespread shutdowns, such as the medical professionals who in October of 2020 published the Great Barrington Declaration. 

The declaration outlined a strategy to combat COVID-19 without needlessly rendering havoc on society.  The strategy called for focused protection — meaning governments should only use extreme measures to protect the most vulnerable from the deadly effects of COVID, namely older populations and those of all ages with comorbidities. The declaration equally stressed the importance of protecting those least vulnerable to the disease, namely the young and healthy.  Those endorsing the declaration fervently advocated for a do-no-harm approach to protecting children — not so much from the virus as from the ravages of school closures and other interruptions that froze opportunities to learn and socialize. Unfortunately, the declaration’s authors and its many signatories were initially cast aside as outliers.

But they were right all along. As of January 26, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 748 recorded deaths among those ages 0-17 years that were classified as having involved COVID-19 since January 2019. We now know it’s possible those fatalities are even lower; Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted as much in a recent interview about pediatric hospitalizations. To put this in perspective, the death toll of children who died with COVID-19 over the last two years is about one-half of children who died from pneumonia and influenza—without COVID—during the same time period.   

In Nevada, as of this writing, there are 13 recorded deaths among a population of 830,000 residents aged 0-19 since the inception of COVID reporting. And similar to the caveats in the CDC reporting, those deaths are not with 100 percent certainty attributed to COVID.  With more than 70 million people in the U.S. under the age of 18, the number of deaths from COVID among young people is very small, as has now been well-documented.

Of course, all deaths among children from COVID or any other disease are especially tragic. But they must be considered relative to the negative effects of widespread lockdowns. One of the true tragedies of the pandemic has been widespread closing of schools in the name of safety, while those supposedly in harms’ way have been virtually unaffected by the disease.  

The Omicron variant is now having its way by infecting people at rates not seen before. Thankfully, it is not as dangerous as previous variants, which is all the more reason for state and local leaders to maintain a steady hand at the helm of schools. President Biden indicated as much in a recent briefing when, in reference to available testing, vaccines and lessons learned, he said, “We can keep our K-through-12 schools open, and that’s exactly what we should be doing.” Recognizing the damaging effects of school closures to children worldwide, a recent UNICEF press release included the statement “Even as the Omicron variant takes hold, school closures must be a measure of last resort.”

 Thank goodness. Finally.

Now to get everyone to listen. Even with widespread support to keep schools open at all costs, some are still closing more than they should. Just look at what happened recently in the Chicago public school system. Schools opened after the holiday break; the teacher’s union called a strike and they closed; and then they  re-opened again after an agreement was struck with the union. Nevermind the hard-ball politics played out at the expense of more than 300,000 students. 

In Michigan, most school districts opened for in-person learning after the holidays — except, that is, the state’s largest district that serves students in Detroit, which closed for most of January. And now student groups elsewhere are mobilizing with their own demands — not to keep schools open but for their own KN-95 masks, more testing and a return to remote learning. One can only wonder who’s behind this effort. All of this would be hard to imagine a short time ago, but here we are.

Too many students, especially those from households with limited means, have fallen behind. And we are now understanding just how far behind. A recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General highlights “the urgent need to address the nation’s youth mental health crisis.” According to the advisory, there’s plenty of evidence supporting claims that there is indeed a mental-health crisis among America’s youth that started long before the pandemic, but school lock-outs have only made a bad situation worse.  

 The learning lost is another story. Closing schools en masse for protracted time frames, such as what happened last year in Clark County and elsewhere, with some tragic consequences, is a mistake that should never happen again unless there is a viable rationale to do so.  So far, that rationale is not Omicron.

The virus can continue to present an existential threat to the well-being of healthy young people, but only if we let it. When shutdowns are considered, schools should be the last to close and first to open, with no exceptions, as we all work together to weather the Omicron wave and any variant on its heels.

Michael Raponi is a contributing columnist to The Nevada Independent. He may be contacted at [email protected].