Four days after the start of the school year, I did something that I never imagined I would do: I unenrolled my 5th grader from public school.  As an avid supporter of and true believer in public schools, this is a decision I never thought I’d make.

I’m a reasonable parent. Knowing there would be no mask mandate, I sent my child in a mask and encouraged her to take reasonable precautions. She is too young to be vaccinated. Our children’s hospitals are full, so I worry that she wouldn’t get adequate care if she got sick or even broke a leg.  I observed that many students weren’t wearing masks, including the student that sits next to her. Hmm.

I decided to call the nurse and ask what the procedure is if there is a COVID case in the classroom. The nurse told me that the TEA would not, at that time, allow for parents to be told if a child has COVID in their class. This changed a couple of days later – the TEA changed guidance to say that if a child gets sick in my kid’s class, I get a notification. So I asked the nurse – do the children have to quarantine if they are exposed to COVID-19?

Her answer: No, it’s a personal choice. Upon notification of positive cases in my child’s class, I observed that children in that class were being sent back to school, without masks, after being exposed. Not many parents were making the choice to quarantine.

I asked the nurse if the schools would be contact tracing. The school nurse informed me that Collin County is in charge of contact tracing and that the school reports every positive case to the county. I called the county, and the county informed me that they are not doing any contact tracing, they just send the reports up to the state. The state is very understaffed and they have made no attempts to contact trace, based on the accounts of several people I know that were exposed in a classroom and have not been contacted.

So we had no masks, no contact tracing, no quarantine. It’s no surprise that my daughter’s school has more than one positive case in every 5th grade classroom as we speak. My kid wasn’t exposed because I pulled her out Monday, and I’m not sending her back until she is vaccinated.

Texas politicians have put politics over children’s health and safety. They’re not making any attempt to mitigate this disease. This year, our kids are going to see teachers die, students hospitalized, and they will all get this infection that may damage their lungs permanently. All because Abbott wants to win a primary.

I’m angrier than I’ve ever been at Republicans, and that’s saying something.