Last week, HuffPost ran a piece called “Anatomy Of A GOP Non-Scandal” where it dismissed the outrage of parents over mask mandates, suggesting it was all just organized GOP hype.
The media couldn’t help itself in attempting to spin an organic coalition of parents fighting against mask mandates as something inauthentic and opportunistic.
The HuffPost points to a phone call from a Loudoun mother Megan Rafalski who called into the radio program “O’Connor and Company” on WMAL Radio, a popular morning-drive radio show in the Washington, D.C. area with the listening audience of the Northern Virginia parent movement. Her phone call occurred the morning of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s optional mask mandate taking effect. She had taken her child to school maskless and the administrators had separated her from her child and wouldn’t permit her to enter the school. She was understandably upset standing outside with no answers about what was happening to her child.
“The principal made us [parents] stand outside in the freezing cold all morning. We just want our kids to be able to go to class with their peers and have fun, smile and learn. I am pleading with people to stand up. This will continue until we stand together,” she tearfully said as she stood outside of her child’s school in 30-degree temperatures.
Rafalski went on, “They won’t let my son go to his classroom because he won’t wear a mask, because he’s exercising his rights, and they’re forcing him to sit in the office. He’s been strong-armed and intimidated by his principal and many others.”
The interview went viral on social media and HuffPost points to various prominent conservatives tweeting about how “out of control” Loudoun County schools were for punishing maskless students.
HuffPost wrote: “Other than the flurry of tweets from GOP operatives, there’s been no evidence of mass chaos or suspensions over the competing mask orders — just endless parental squabbling.”
The Post pointed to only “200 students” going to school maskless out of more than 82,000 students.
“The chain of events on Monday demonstrates how the right has wielded the anger around COVID protocols and school curriculums for political gain,” HuffPost writer said.
Are all of these students across the country, Loudoun mom Megan Rafalski, and last week’s 200 maskless Loudoun students merely “wielding the anger around COVID protocols” to help Republican pundits in sending out angry tweets?
No. They are fed up and for good reason. Kids are suffering. The indifference of the HuffPost writer to characterize the cumulative frustration of parents watching their kids suffer in school, coming home with headaches and falling behind in classes as merely “parent squabbling” is infuriating.
Fact is, many Northern Virginia parents expressed their frustration about masking policies in numerous ways. Many parents called and emailed school administrators directly because of fear their child would be suspended for being maskless at school.
200 Loudoun kids protesting the mask mandates is not an insignificant number, especially after Loudoun County Public Schools sent parents a threatening email.
But to HuffPost, we need to fact check someone’s political affiliation before we can become outraged by the substance of their tweet shining a spotlight on the plight of parents and children fighting back against insane policies.
Should parents sit back and continue to be compliant with the inertia of destructive COVID policies on their children, HuffPost?
Getting the world back to normal for our kids shouldn’t be a partisan issue but to HuffPost it’s all a “GOP non-scandal.” The sacrifices that we have asked our children to make is a scandal that will last an entire generation. No matter what our party affiliation is, we should all be uniting around Virginia mom Megan Rafalski’s plea to allow “our kids to be able to go to class with their peers and have fun, smile and learn.”