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David Leonhardt, senior writer for the New York Times, described the crisis facing American youth as the result of COVID-19 mitigation attempts, detailing the effects in a hard-hitting Twitter thread.
“American children are starting 2022 in crisis. I’m not sure that many people fully grasp the depth of it,” he tweeted, accompanying an article titled “No way to grow up” from his outlet.
“1. Children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not come close to catching up. The shortfalls are largest for Black and Hispanic students, as well as students in schools with high poverty rates,” he explained.
“‘We haven’t seen this kind of academic achievement crisis in living memory,’ [Michael Petrilli] of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute said.” He then noted the concerning spike of mental health problems among young people.
1. Children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not come close to catching up. The shortfalls are largest for Black and Hispanic students, as well as students in schools with high poverty rates….
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
2. Many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems. Three medical groups recently declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health. They cited “dramatic increases in emergency department visits for all mental health emergencies.”
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
“2. Many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems. Three medical groups recently declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health. They cited ‘dramatic increases in emergency department visits for all mental health emergencies.'” Leonhardt tweeted.
3. Suicide attempts have risen, slightly among adolescent boys and sharply among adolescent girls. The number of E.R. visits for suspected suicide attempts by 12- to 17-year-old girls rose by 51 percent from early 2019 to early 2021, according to the CDC. https://t.co/9wHLBsI8mc
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
“3. Suicide attempts have risen, slightly among adolescent boys and sharply among adolescent girls. The number of E.R. visits for suspected suicide attempts by 12- to 17-year-old girls rose by 51 percent from early 2019 to early 2021, according to the CDC,” he explained.
But self-inflicted violence isn’t the only thing that has shot up since the pandemic started. School shootings are also tragically on the rise, a trend that runs alongside a general rise in crime in large cities across the United States.
… School shootings have also risen: The Washington Post counted 42 last year in the U.S., the most on record and up from 27 in 2019. https://t.co/7ahzI3V4Bi
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
Leonhardt noted that while many aspects of life have returned to normal, or near-normal, schools have been one of the holdouts, which denies young children in critical development stages academic and social activities.
When The Morning asked parents and teachers about the situation in their local schools, we heard an outpouring of anguish:
“This is no way for children to grow up,” Jackie Irwin, a reader in Oklahoma, told us. “It is maddening.”
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
A rise in behavioral problems among students has also been noted.
6. Behavior problems have increased. “Schools across the country say they’re seeing an uptick in disruptive behaviors,” @kalynbelsha of Chalkbeat reported, ranging from "students trashing bathrooms" to "putting their head down and refusing to talk."https://t.co/TbbC1s53Dw
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
Many kids have the attitude "‘The world’s out of control, why should I be in control?’" as Harrison Bailey III, a principal in Bethlehem, Pa., told @EricaLG. https://t.co/OxzreqMbDk
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
As the Omicron variant runs rampant and causes politicians to re-institute restrictions, many children will return to remote learning, despite having more difficulty retaining information than they would in a classroom setting.
“It’s chaos,” Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, told @DanaGoldPGH. “The No. 1 thing that parents and families are crying out for is stability.”https://t.co/lr7h6a9w1Q
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
“Bottom line: For the past two years, large parts of American society have decided harming children was an unavoidable side effect of Covid. And that was probably true in the spring of 2020, when nearly all of society shut down. It’s been less defensible since then,” Leonhardt explained, going on to say that continuing school shutdowns may not be based in science.
Data now suggest that many changes to school routines are of questionable value. Some researchers are skeptical that school closures even reduce Covid cases. Other interventions, like forcing students to sit apart from their friends at lunch, may also have little benefit.
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
The widespread availability of vaccines also raises an ethical question: Should children suffer to protect unvaccinated adults — who are voluntarily accepting Covid risk for themselves and increasing everybody else’s risk, too? Right now, the U.S. is effectively saying yes.
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
For the past two years, however, many communities in the U.S. have not really grappled with the trade-off. They have tried to minimize the spread of Covid — a worthy goal absent other factors — rather than minimizing the damage that Covid does to society….
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
Ultimately, Leonhardt explains, America has accepted harm to children as a necessary evil in order to fight against COVID-19.
… Communities have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults, often without acknowledging the dilemma or assessing which decisions lead to less overall harm.
So it is not surprising that children are suffering so much. https://t.co/blOe9iRbYh
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 4, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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