Mama and Papa Bears vs. COVID Restrictions

[Honoria]

August 10, 2021

Mama and Papa Bears vs. COVID Restrictions

By Renee Parsons


At this time many school districts across the country are in the throes of whether to mandate masks or vaccinations for grammar-school children, frequently amid great controversy and heated debate. Even in school districts where the majority political ideology overrides biology, gatherings may be less contentious and fiery, yet the mama and papa bears will be heard.



The issue is whether school districts, which are entrusted to educate children about the real world, have any legitimacy to override parental responsibility in mandating the CDC’s onerous COVID restrictions. Given the latest resurgence of COVID, school districts are being allowed to challenge sacrosanct parental rights as the state (i.e. school boards acting as CDC reps) claim undisputed authority to dictate public behavior. Barring a suspension of the Constitution, the question is, under what circumstance, and during what national emergency has the state any legitimate role to dictate the lives of American children. As in the case of mandating COVID restrictions, once the state asserts that authority, where does the CDC’s legally valid approbation of that child end.



The current mask/no mask debate opens the door to the contention that the state’s concept of ‘greater good’ allows its institutional authority into every nook and corner of American life; that every action of the state is justified to benefit the common good of the collective and, in this case, depends on the capitulation of parental instinct. That ‘greater good’ which takes precedence over every individual child’s distinct and separate right to American liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution, is nothing less than pure fascism.



In New Mexico, Democratic governor Michele Grisham, who has foisted some of the most contentious lockdown requirements on her citizens, has threatened one school board with removal. The Floyd, New Mexico board voted unanimously to allow each family to decide on the use of face masks, to allow each teacher to implement social distancing as necessary, and to end temperature tests for students and teachers. The board’s decision immediately incurred the governor’s wrath as a violation of New Mexico’s health guidelines with the State Public Education Department demanding that the board rescind its actions.

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