Posted on Feb 21, 2022
What can Missouri kids do when politics interfere with school safety? They can walk out.
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In January, high school students walked out of their Columbia, Missouri, classrooms to pressure their school board to reinstate a mask mandate. With COVID prevention policies expiring statewide, their experience — and a whole history of student-led walkouts — might prove instructive.
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In December, as Columbia Public Schools headed into winter break, students and teachers got word that they'd be returning — post holiday — without a mask mandate. This was at the height of the omicron variant surge, and Quinn Felts, a sophomore at Hickman High School, got an uneasy feeling that stuck with him through the break.
The 15-year-old has never known high school to be what's often invoked as "normal." When the COVID-19 pandemic began, he was still in eighth grade.
For more stories like this one, subscribe to Real Humans on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get podcasts.
In December, as Columbia Public Schools headed into winter break, students and teachers got word that they'd be returning — post holiday — without a mask mandate. This was at the height of the omicron variant surge, and Quinn Felts, a sophomore at Hickman High School, got an uneasy feeling that stuck with him through the break.
The 15-year-old has never known high school to be what's often invoked as "normal." When the COVID-19 pandemic began, he was still in eighth grade.
What can Missouri kids do when politics interfere with school safety? They can walk out.
Posted from kcur.org
Columbia
Safety
Medical
Health
Posted 2 y ago
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It is optional for my kids who are in High School. My kids have elected to stay masked and I think that is a good thing.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The last time he left his middle school building, he didn't realize he was leaving for good.
"I didn't even say goodbye to any of my teachers," Felts recalls. "They said it was going to be a two-week break."
He spent a lonely summer distanced from friends, before his high school career began in hybrid mode: partially online, partially in person.
"We kind of alternated days," Felts explains. "Like, a group of people would go Monday, and then another group of people would go Wednesday, and then we'd go back Friday. So in between those days they could sanitize."
But every day on campus was a mask day.
"Everybody knew we needed to do that," he says, remembering how masking in school once felt like a no-brainer.
Over winter break, after the new policy was announced, case counts began to soar. Felts expected the district to backtrack.
"I thought like two days before school started again, they were gonna be like, 'OK, spike in cases, you know, masks are back,'" he says. "But that didn't happen. So then I was like, 'OK, we need to kind of like do something.'"
When the possibility of organizing a walkout flashed through his mind, Felts texted a friend, unsure of the idea. The friend immediately texted back: that could actually work. Felts says he mentioned it to a teacher, too.
"I was like, 'Do you think some sort of boycott would work?' And she said, 'If you got enough people, I 100% believe that it would work.'"...
..."The last time he left his middle school building, he didn't realize he was leaving for good.
"I didn't even say goodbye to any of my teachers," Felts recalls. "They said it was going to be a two-week break."
He spent a lonely summer distanced from friends, before his high school career began in hybrid mode: partially online, partially in person.
"We kind of alternated days," Felts explains. "Like, a group of people would go Monday, and then another group of people would go Wednesday, and then we'd go back Friday. So in between those days they could sanitize."
But every day on campus was a mask day.
"Everybody knew we needed to do that," he says, remembering how masking in school once felt like a no-brainer.
Over winter break, after the new policy was announced, case counts began to soar. Felts expected the district to backtrack.
"I thought like two days before school started again, they were gonna be like, 'OK, spike in cases, you know, masks are back,'" he says. "But that didn't happen. So then I was like, 'OK, we need to kind of like do something.'"
When the possibility of organizing a walkout flashed through his mind, Felts texted a friend, unsure of the idea. The friend immediately texted back: that could actually work. Felts says he mentioned it to a teacher, too.
"I was like, 'Do you think some sort of boycott would work?' And she said, 'If you got enough people, I 100% believe that it would work.'"...
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