My children attended West Hawaii Explorations Academy. I use the past tense because with the exception of a token one-day program, the school stubbornly remains closed.
The school refuses to return for full-time education despite extensive science showing that schools are not significant vectors for COVID and strong evidence that school closures harm children.
At WHEA, for example, the medical experts selected by the administration weighed in and unequivocally recommended full reopening of the school after spring break. They were overruled.
They were overruled by an administration that is at the mercy of teachers. Teachers who are unreasonably terrified of COVID-19. Teachers who are drawing a full salary and have been offered vaccination, but still refuse to return to the classroom full time.
Yet when I go down to Coconut Grove I see people out and about, restaurants full of patrons, volleyball in full swing and tourists enjoying the island. Safely.
Every year, when the teacher’s union negotiates for raises they tell us all that they are essential. That their jobs are important. That they earn their pay and deserve more. More pay, more benefits, more protections, but less accountability.
There are other important professions out there too. Telecommunications technicians, cashiers, waiters, bus drivers, cleaning staff, desk clerks, cops and nurses all have important jobs.
And to do those jobs they need to be able to send their children to school. Where teachers are supposed to be there to educate them.
Our community is small. We depend on one another. And when one segment of the community unreasonably refuses to do their part, we all suffer.
What would we do if the cops refused to go to work? Or the nurses? Or the linemen?
It is time for the state Board of Education and the superintendent to fulfill their obligation to the rest of us and mandate that the $2.1 billion public education system return full-time, immediately.
If they don’t, we run the risk of starting the 2021-22 school year in the same position we’re in now: minimal disease, vaccinated teachers and closed schools.
Joshua Montgomery is a resident of Holualoa.
