A school in upstate New York imposed some of the most extreme measures during the pandemic—including silent lunches and outdoor masking. The rules are still in effect.
My grandma always said 80-90 % of people are sheep. I also reached this conclusion after taking numerous social psychology classes. Has anyone noticed how sheep like the rabid woke followers are? How were Hitler and Mussolini successful? Well they relied upon the sheeplike mentality of humans. I am not a sheep and I am prone to speaking out and up. I am a people pleaser and a conflict avoider by nature but I do speak up when I see something needs to be said. I hope more people see that despite it being difficult they need to speak up. Thank you for shedding light on this school and their clearly unfriendly child policies. It’s laughable really a cloth mask being used to prevent Covid. Talk about rubbish. The school administrators need to be called to account. Somehow the wimpy parents need to advocate for their children.
The parents keeping their kids at this school are committing gross negligence in the raising of their kids. What’s their excuse? They’re lazy, timid, seduced by ‘status’ (“my kids go to this great private school that I pay a lot of money for”). How noble.
What a lesson to teach your children; "don't say anything for fear of retribution". These parents should be ashamed of themselves. Teaching your children to live in fear is one of the worst things you can do as a parent. Unfortunately, the pandemic has taught me that there are so many parents who are willing to give up their children's rights in the name of safety. I wonder though if they would give up their own so willingly?
“The parents who send their children to Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School are highly educated people.” I always see this label being used--highly educated. Education is measured in many different ways. When we have conditioned our society to hold academic degrees and or accolades as the standard bearers of truth then we have a long way to go. What I saw in this article were parents that were afraid to speak out because they feared reprisal from the school administrators. What good is all that education if you can’t make reasoned decisions. To me this example is very close to what happens in cults.
My daughter was attending a private Montessori school last January when our newly elected Governor (Glenn Youngkin) signed an executive order requiring ALL schools to make mask wearing optional. Our school did not comply, citing potential action on the matter from their accrediting institution.
My daughter went to the chairman of the board of the school. She was 12 at the time. She informed them that she would not be returning to the school if they did not comply with the Governors order, and then proceeded to paint an intimate portrait of “life in a mask” from the perspective of a child who had been relentlessly bullied about proper mask placement, how her peers liked wearing masks because it allowed them to avoid facing their insecurities, how the popular kids would be allowed to take down their masks in unsupervised moments but less popular kids would be required to keep them up.
The mask mandate went down the next day on the order of the board chair. Parents speaking up is one thing, but parents supporting their children to step forward and to speak up is not only more effective, it teaches the next generation what advocacy really looks like, as opposed to the lunatic screaming that we see on college campuses.
Here's a summary: There's a school in New York where EVERYONE is a Democrat. They are still under lockdown. They have no moral courage. It takes ZERO moral courage to be a Democrat...
I have no medical expertise but I spent some of my formative years in Japan when my parents lived there. I sort of grew up with the concept of masking. But it was presented all wrong. Masking can help someone who might be ill or who might be potentially ill from spreading the virus quite as virently ,but as Americans who weren't used to masking and seeing others who did mask catch illness anyway, it didn't connect well, and then some as you write about went overboard. This created a "cult of denial" that covid
was even real and not just a "deep state" conspiracy. History has had a lot of pandemics, but such measures of closing down work, school, etc never happened---at least to this extent. And the result, the pandemic created panic by governments that exasperated that really didn't help very much at all. So when a possible relief is presented with the vaccine half of Americans are antagonistic---and yes it's added fuel to the political divide.
I don't know what government's response should have been, but what did happen was not very effective either as prevention or as a perceived acceptable remedy. Some blamed the spread on non-compliance, others complained the govt. was attempting to stifle liberty. I think neither is true.
If we "learned" what to do in case of another panic, maybe we should have learned, work on the cure and until then you can't stop the disease from running its course. Then maybe people will feel more accepting of the vaccine and less resentful of government action.
But as I said, I don't know the answer, but the answer can't be dividing people into believing or not-believing in a disease that was real.
The Free Press story on Marin County’s Country Day School is permanently etched into my memory. The Upstate NY private school joins a list of what I consider “BBB violators.” SF Tesla is a 5 minute walk from my TL apartment. If I pay them $100K, I expect to not receive a Hummer gas-guzzler. Truth in advertising. Parents are customers purchasing a product the school literally sells. Any noteworthy deviation from reasonably expected transparency, disclosure and due process- is a violation of business contract between seller and buyer. Normal parent-school communication and discussion is a part of due process. Parents should complain to local BBB.
What kind of brainwashing is going on in this community? What kind of wealthy, educated adults are too cowardly to speak up when a handful of administrators bully them into nonsensical rules that at best offer no benefits, and at worst, harm their children? Are we really so worried what others will think of (and say about us on social media) that we are too afraid to speak the truth? This is truly a case of the Emperor Has No Clothes. Shame on these parents. They need to find their moral courage.
You are assuming the parents - well educated and no doubt skewed toward Progressive viewpoints - are simply too timid to protest. I wonder. My experience with some of these folks is that a significant number want the most stringent protections to continue, regardless of the situation or consequences. I personally know adults who still demand masks at in-person gatherings, even though everyone is verified vaccinated, and they all have to walk through crowds of unmasked people (adults and children) to get to their community meeting room. The demand for masking is a tribal identifier, not a medical issue. I'm sorry about the kids, but this is about the parents, not just the administration.
My kids were masked until the beginning of 2021 and they failed to pick up the English and Spanish language skills they needed. We are still working to catch our kids up on phonetics. But I am grateful to live in Louisiana where the mandates weren’t overdone, except NOLA. But no one who could afford private school had this challenge. As a public school mom, we would have been protesting if it had gone on longer than it did. WTF? This is no way to live.
Great reporting David. Thank you. Very very sad that these parents have lost touch with what truly is important. I wonder how they would feel having to live that life when they go to work each day? I just wish there was some way to keep those adults in Ithaca; because; whatever malady they’re suffering I fear it’s much more contagious than Covid.
My grandma always said 80-90 % of people are sheep. I also reached this conclusion after taking numerous social psychology classes. Has anyone noticed how sheep like the rabid woke followers are? How were Hitler and Mussolini successful? Well they relied upon the sheeplike mentality of humans. I am not a sheep and I am prone to speaking out and up. I am a people pleaser and a conflict avoider by nature but I do speak up when I see something needs to be said. I hope more people see that despite it being difficult they need to speak up. Thank you for shedding light on this school and their clearly unfriendly child policies. It’s laughable really a cloth mask being used to prevent Covid. Talk about rubbish. The school administrators need to be called to account. Somehow the wimpy parents need to advocate for their children.
This should serve as a reminder that we can all fall prey to radicalization. It doesn't have to make sense.
The parents keeping their kids at this school are committing gross negligence in the raising of their kids. What’s their excuse? They’re lazy, timid, seduced by ‘status’ (“my kids go to this great private school that I pay a lot of money for”). How noble.
They are sheep
What a lesson to teach your children; "don't say anything for fear of retribution". These parents should be ashamed of themselves. Teaching your children to live in fear is one of the worst things you can do as a parent. Unfortunately, the pandemic has taught me that there are so many parents who are willing to give up their children's rights in the name of safety. I wonder though if they would give up their own so willingly?
“The parents who send their children to Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School are highly educated people.” I always see this label being used--highly educated. Education is measured in many different ways. When we have conditioned our society to hold academic degrees and or accolades as the standard bearers of truth then we have a long way to go. What I saw in this article were parents that were afraid to speak out because they feared reprisal from the school administrators. What good is all that education if you can’t make reasoned decisions. To me this example is very close to what happens in cults.
Having a degree does not make one “smart “ . That is one of the big lies of education
My daughter was attending a private Montessori school last January when our newly elected Governor (Glenn Youngkin) signed an executive order requiring ALL schools to make mask wearing optional. Our school did not comply, citing potential action on the matter from their accrediting institution.
My daughter went to the chairman of the board of the school. She was 12 at the time. She informed them that she would not be returning to the school if they did not comply with the Governors order, and then proceeded to paint an intimate portrait of “life in a mask” from the perspective of a child who had been relentlessly bullied about proper mask placement, how her peers liked wearing masks because it allowed them to avoid facing their insecurities, how the popular kids would be allowed to take down their masks in unsupervised moments but less popular kids would be required to keep them up.
The mask mandate went down the next day on the order of the board chair. Parents speaking up is one thing, but parents supporting their children to step forward and to speak up is not only more effective, it teaches the next generation what advocacy really looks like, as opposed to the lunatic screaming that we see on college campuses.
Here's a summary: There's a school in New York where EVERYONE is a Democrat. They are still under lockdown. They have no moral courage. It takes ZERO moral courage to be a Democrat...
I have no medical expertise but I spent some of my formative years in Japan when my parents lived there. I sort of grew up with the concept of masking. But it was presented all wrong. Masking can help someone who might be ill or who might be potentially ill from spreading the virus quite as virently ,but as Americans who weren't used to masking and seeing others who did mask catch illness anyway, it didn't connect well, and then some as you write about went overboard. This created a "cult of denial" that covid
was even real and not just a "deep state" conspiracy. History has had a lot of pandemics, but such measures of closing down work, school, etc never happened---at least to this extent. And the result, the pandemic created panic by governments that exasperated that really didn't help very much at all. So when a possible relief is presented with the vaccine half of Americans are antagonistic---and yes it's added fuel to the political divide.
I don't know what government's response should have been, but what did happen was not very effective either as prevention or as a perceived acceptable remedy. Some blamed the spread on non-compliance, others complained the govt. was attempting to stifle liberty. I think neither is true.
If we "learned" what to do in case of another panic, maybe we should have learned, work on the cure and until then you can't stop the disease from running its course. Then maybe people will feel more accepting of the vaccine and less resentful of government action.
But as I said, I don't know the answer, but the answer can't be dividing people into believing or not-believing in a disease that was real.
The Free Press story on Marin County’s Country Day School is permanently etched into my memory. The Upstate NY private school joins a list of what I consider “BBB violators.” SF Tesla is a 5 minute walk from my TL apartment. If I pay them $100K, I expect to not receive a Hummer gas-guzzler. Truth in advertising. Parents are customers purchasing a product the school literally sells. Any noteworthy deviation from reasonably expected transparency, disclosure and due process- is a violation of business contract between seller and buyer. Normal parent-school communication and discussion is a part of due process. Parents should complain to local BBB.
What kind of brainwashing is going on in this community? What kind of wealthy, educated adults are too cowardly to speak up when a handful of administrators bully them into nonsensical rules that at best offer no benefits, and at worst, harm their children? Are we really so worried what others will think of (and say about us on social media) that we are too afraid to speak the truth? This is truly a case of the Emperor Has No Clothes. Shame on these parents. They need to find their moral courage.
The administration is so proud of what they are doing that when pressed for comment, they were rendered speechless.
Literally child abuse and shame to all those parents keeping their kids enrolled.
(I’d like to know the high school path / Cornell community angle/ perceived social benefits of being enrolled at this place?)
You are assuming the parents - well educated and no doubt skewed toward Progressive viewpoints - are simply too timid to protest. I wonder. My experience with some of these folks is that a significant number want the most stringent protections to continue, regardless of the situation or consequences. I personally know adults who still demand masks at in-person gatherings, even though everyone is verified vaccinated, and they all have to walk through crowds of unmasked people (adults and children) to get to their community meeting room. The demand for masking is a tribal identifier, not a medical issue. I'm sorry about the kids, but this is about the parents, not just the administration.
My kids were masked until the beginning of 2021 and they failed to pick up the English and Spanish language skills they needed. We are still working to catch our kids up on phonetics. But I am grateful to live in Louisiana where the mandates weren’t overdone, except NOLA. But no one who could afford private school had this challenge. As a public school mom, we would have been protesting if it had gone on longer than it did. WTF? This is no way to live.
These rational comments give me some hope.
I'm most definitely late to this party but finally finished reading this and in a time in history where very little still shocks me-this did.
I really try not to judge; but shame on these parents.
Every. Single. One.
Great reporting David. Thank you. Very very sad that these parents have lost touch with what truly is important. I wonder how they would feel having to live that life when they go to work each day? I just wish there was some way to keep those adults in Ithaca; because; whatever malady they’re suffering I fear it’s much more contagious than Covid.