Children Are Our Future And Need Normal Lives Back

I AM starting to sound like a broken record. A weary, heartbroken record. For over a year I, and many other colleagues in wide-ranging fields, have been asking policy-makers to put children first during the Covid-19 crisis.

- Ellen Townsend

They have not listened and continue to ignore us, despite a mountain of evidence amassing that documents the harms of their pandemic policies on young people.

Think about it for a moment. We have all been living through a disaster. Disaster planners are very clear we should put children first in these situations. We haven’t.

There are so many injustices being meted out to young people that it is hard to know where to start, but let’s go with education, schools, and learning.

The education system is in total chaos. Having been denied access to schooling for significant periods of the past year more than a third of a million children are now unnecessarily isolating at home, having been identified as a close contact of a Covid-19 case.

Parents, in the main, are not allowed to attend sports days. End-of-term concerts have been canceled. University students have not had once-in-a-lifetime graduation ceremonies.

Meanwhile, we have seen thousands of adults enjoying life to the max at major sporting events such as Ascot, Wimbledon, and the Euros. What message does this send to our young people about their value and worth, relative to us adults?