Were You Helped by Illinois' Pandemic-Response Policies, or Harmed?
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Were You Helped by Illinois' Pandemic-Response Policies, or Harmed?
How so?
I would love to hear from Illinoisans (current residents or those who left the state since March 2020) about the impact of the state’s pandemic-response policies on them and/or their families.
Were you/your family helped by the state’s response, or harmed? How so?
What do you wish more people understood about impact of Illinois’ pandemic-response policies on you/your family?
Who’s responsible (in whole or in part) for the Illinois pandemic-response policies that helped or harmed you/your family? In what ways?
If you believe the policies were largely harmful, how do you think Illinois officials should held accountable? (Avoid hopeless and defeatist responses, if possible...I know it’s hard.) 🤗
1.Because of the state of Illinois's ridiculous policy of closing schools and shutting down sports, we were harmed. So, we moved. Not all families had the luxury of doing what we did. Our 16 year old son (at the time -3.2020) suffered from anxiety and bullying. Staying at home was not an option for schooling. We moved to the state of Florida. Schools in Florida were open and sports were played during the pandemic from May 2020 and continue to be played today. Not one child I met in Florida throughout travel sports or any other sports' seasons May 2020-Aug 2022 ever died from COVID. Same in Illinois. However, I do know one child-a boy in Illinois-who committed suicide during this time frame.
2. I wish people knew that children here in Florida were able to maintain normal lives and were able to interact and go to school. Just because we live in Florida does not mean that kids in Illinois should have suffered the way Illinoisans did. It was so upsetting to see paid CTU teachers posting on social media their traveling, dancing, drinking and "whooping it up" escapades while the kids suffered the most were FORCED TO STAY AT HOME. They should all be put on leave. The lack of scientific evidence shouldn't have dictated the closure of schools to the detriment of children, especially since school aged children were not an at risk group.
3.
My son was one of three students severely punished (scapegoated) after his mask protest video of kids assembling in the gym went viral and was reposted by you and Gary Rabine on Twitter and Instagram. He lost his entire spring of 22 season and was socially isolated from everyone, including his own twin brother who naively thought he could have a sports season until his name was omitted from the roster.
My boys will be juniors in high school and haven’t had a normal sports season since the 7th grade. The punishment led to us having to withdraw him from school after 5 weeks. He was headed down a destructive path. His own lacrosse coaches and many friends never spoke to him or us again. We lost our support system of the past two years. His grades were in the toilet and we enrolled him in his home public high school. The private school would not sign his IHSA forms to allow him to play there either and IHSA denied our appeal. The punishment was politically motivated.
We luckily found a good therapist, his travel lacrosse coaches had private lessons and we had the boys in personal training.
It’s hard to play travel lacrosse when you can’t leave the state without ridiculous testing and quarantining for 10 days in high school.
I blame our bizarre public health messaging, politicians including Pritzker and Lightfoot, the corrupt CDC and FDA. I blame IHSA. I blame other parents in my school community who planned a protest and then left 3 kids to be stripped of all their dignity with punishments that lasted over a year in length. I blame school administrators and boards that implemented policies that put the needs of adults over the needs of the students they have been entrusted to care for. I blame the political climate in Illinois and the politicization of our medical industry. I blame the installed President of the United States. He is corrupt and evil. Six months have gone by since the mask protest that I did not plan or attend yet I think about it everyday. I am angry. Going forward my kids will both be at their home public school. When they go to college we are all leaving Illinois.