Letter to the editor: The Lenoir County Public Schools board majority should revisit their own governing principles
The LCPS Board’s Governing Principles include “providing every student with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education as defined by the North Carolina Supreme court in Leandro v. State” as the 1st “most significant duty” of the Board.
Leandro requirements include, in part; that each child be afforded the opportunity to attend a school that every classroom be staffed… (to) provide differentiated, individualized instruction, assessment, and remediation to the students in that classroom…. that… Principals… hire and retain… teachers who can implement an effective and cost-effective instructional program that meets the needs of at-risk children that every school be provided… the resources necessary to support the effective instructional program within that school…
These requirements cannot be met in the all-remote environment. The Board majority’s School Reopen Plan is preventing students, teachers, and parents from achieving the success only possible with face-to-face instruction, unjustifiably using COVID-19 cases as the excuse to keep students out of the classroom.
In North Carolina, the COVID-19 survival rate for 0-24 year olds is 99.9914%. Their risk of death from COVID-19 is comparable to drowning or from an earthquake.
For 25-64 year olds in NC, the survival rate is 99.4499%. Their risk of death from COVID-19 is comparable to falling down stairs, fire, or car accident.
Meanwhile, the Board majority is exposing all students to known consequences of continued lockdowns and school closures, including increased risks of depression, anxiety, suicide, weakened immune systems, tuberculosis, drug abuse and overdose, hunger, teen pregnancies, domestic violence, loss of educational gains, and lower lifetime earnings.
Per the “Responding to Complaints” section of the LCPS Board’s Governing Principles, the Board strives to “resolve concerns and complaints whenever possible”. Resolving the current issue is absolutely possible by providing an in-person education option and not doing so is in direct conflict with the position of U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who in her September 2, 2020 back-to-school letter to America’s parents stated;
“No one is suggesting that every single child must be behind a desk in a classroom, or that health realities on the ground won’t cause temporary disruptions. We do, however, believe that, as the rule, schools must be open for in-person learning as an option for the families who want or who need it.”
Jonathan Britt
Grifton, NC
