School board member should know better

I just read that District 214 has decided to begin the school year remotely rather than using the original plan of a scaled-back version of in-school instruction. Bravo, 214. If there's any error there, it's one of caution.

What troubles me in the article is that one board member, Todd Younger, is said to prefer in-person learning and suggested "youths are just as much at risk to die in a car accident or by suicide, or get sick from other viruses and diseases." Apparently Mr. Younger doesn't get that we don't put our kids in front of moving cars. We don't give them the tools of self-destruction, nor do we intentionally expose them to flu or disease. At this time, especially considering the continuing rate of infection in Illinois, it would be foolhardy to put our kids in harm's way by placing them in the traditional school setting.

What troubles me even more is that it's not even that our kids might get sick. Of course they might. It is that they, sick or not, might carry the virus home and infect Mom or Dad. Or a little sister or a little brother, or an elderly grandparent, any one of whom might have underlying conditions making them more susceptible to catastrophic illness.

So, spare me the argument that our students would get sick anyway. The issue is that we need not only to protect our kids. We need to help protect their families. We need to protect our families. That is our responsibility. That is the school board's responsibility. So, yes, I am troubled that a school board member would not understand that. And that being the case, then a seat on the board of District 214, or any school board, for that matter, is not the right fit for Mr. Younger.

Johnston W. Getty

Elgin