There is a story on the Web site of KOMO News in Seattle, about the increase in suicides of young people kept at home by school closures “due to Wuhan Coronavirus”.  For nearly a full year now, youngsters from kindergarten through college-age have not been allowed to go to school.  Most cities immediately closed all their K-12 schools when the virus was originally found to be spreading in the United States, since in the past young students were found to be carriers of viruses home to their families and infecting them.

However, it has now been known for quite a while that children are NOT as susceptible to the Wuhan Coronavirus as older adults are, and are NOT spreaders of the virus to most adults.  In spite of these scientific findings, most school districts have remained closed to in-person teaching, with Teachers Unions refusing to return to classrooms.  The story of the union in Chicago is particularly newsworthy this week, with teachers simply refusing to return to in-person teaching, in fear for their lives.

The KOMO story, however, describes the many adverse effects on children, of being denied in-person instruction with their friends.  Psychologists all over America have noted increases in depression, anxiety, and other ill effects.  Here is a quote from an article in the British journal, The Lancet:

In a survey by the mental health charity YoungMinds, which included 2111 participants up to age 25 years with a mental illness history in the UK, 83% said the pandemic had made their conditions worse. 26% said they were unable to access mental health support; peer support groups and face-to-face services have been cancelled, and support by phone or online can be challenging for some young people.

In the United States, increases in youth suicides have been noted for months, around the lockdowns and school closures.  However, one sentence in the KOMO article sounds to me like a case of journalistic malpractice.

There is no concrete evidence correlating the long-term school closures to an increase in youth suicides. Suicide statistics have not been compiled for 2020. However, other data indicate that the problem is not isolated to a single school district or a particular part of the country.

Oh, yes, there is.  If you read even in this article, you see that children who kill themselves always or very often indicate that they think they are all alone and have no friends, because they have been kept from going to school with their peers.  Children NEED face-to-face contact with their friends and schoolmates, and “distance learning” on Zoom simply doesn’t work for most kids.  What the Health Nazis, and now the Teachers Union Nazis are doing to America’s kids is criminal.

I wonder, why have there been no class-action lawsuits against Teachers Unions, by parents who see their children falling farther and farther behind in school, and becoming depressed and anxious, and yes, suicidal? Where are the Plaintiffs Lawyers lining up to get parents behind such a lawsuit?  I normally despise the whole plaintiffs bar, but here is a situation in which they can do some great work, suing the Teachers Unions who have persuaded their members that they are in grave danger from teaching their students!