• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    Johnson and Macron

    Mais oui, mon ami: Johnson and Macron display ‘le bromance’ and discuss a European Political Community

    Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill, right, and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS in Dublin

    Northern Ireland Protocol Bill: a hopeless case and a dangerous one?

    SAY NO TO PUTIN

    War and no peace: Putin’s war with Ukraine threatens us all

    Prime minister PMQ prep

    Brexit isn’t working – something we can all agree on

    The small number of trees shows that even the high uplands of the Dales was a woodland environment. Much has been nibbled down to the ground by heavy populations of sheep. Photo by Andy Brown

    Government policies destroying upland Yorkshire farming with no regard for the land or our health

    schools bill

    Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

    Emmanuel Macron

    French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    cost of living march london

    Trade union movement marches to demand better

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • Northern Ireland protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Nostell Priory, Wakefield

    Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

    Headingley Cricket Stadium

    A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

    Bettys' Fat Rascals

    Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

    'Woke' beliefs

    Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Red Ladder

    Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

    Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

    Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

    Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

    Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

    Queen cakes fit for a Queen

    Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

    International Women in Engineering Day 2022

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    conservative party

    The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

    Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

    Money on the floor - £20 notes

    The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

    Financial problems

    Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

    An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

    Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

    Jar with money cascading out of it

    Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      Johnson and Macron

      Mais oui, mon ami: Johnson and Macron display ‘le bromance’ and discuss a European Political Community

      Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill, right, and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS in Dublin

      Northern Ireland Protocol Bill: a hopeless case and a dangerous one?

      SAY NO TO PUTIN

      War and no peace: Putin’s war with Ukraine threatens us all

      Prime minister PMQ prep

      Brexit isn’t working – something we can all agree on

      The small number of trees shows that even the high uplands of the Dales was a woodland environment. Much has been nibbled down to the ground by heavy populations of sheep. Photo by Andy Brown

      Government policies destroying upland Yorkshire farming with no regard for the land or our health

      schools bill

      Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      cost of living march london

      Trade union movement marches to demand better

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • Northern Ireland protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      Headingley Cricket Stadium

      A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

      Bettys' Fat Rascals

      Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

      'Woke' beliefs

      Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Red Ladder

      Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

      Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

      Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

      Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

      Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

      Queen cakes fit for a Queen

      Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

      International Women in Engineering Day 2022

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      conservative party

      The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

      Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

      Money on the floor - £20 notes

      The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

      Financial problems

      Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

      An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

      Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home News Education

      Covid-secure schools campaign: you can take me to court, but my kids’ health comes first

      Lisa Diaz has been campaigning for covid-secure schools for many months and her recent Twitter videos have gone viral

      Lisa DiazbyLisa Diaz
      25-08-2021 11:34
      in Education
      A family in the snow, image supplied by author

      A family in the snow, image supplied by author

      36
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      My name is Lisa Diaz. I am 40 years old and from Wigan. I have a genetic blood clotting disorder, which makes me more at risk should I get sick with Covid-19. My two children are Alex (11) and Helena (8). I am just a normal mum without any scientific knowledge or expertise. I got two Bs at GCSE science – that’s the extent of my scientific qualifications. But you don’t need a PhD in epidemiology to see what is blatantly obvious: schools are not, nor have ever been covid safe.

      Seeing the horrific scenes in March 2020 in Italy, and our own government’s failure to lock down sooner, I decided to remove Alex and Helena from their school on 10 March 2020. At first, there were no issues from either the school or Wigan Council. Soon after I took my kids out, we went into lockdown anyway and so both worked happily online with their classmates. No big issues.

      September 2020: schools weren’t covid secure

      However, when schools went back in September, the tone was very different. I was astonished to find out that there would be no meaningful mitigations in place. Having been told all summer to socially distance, suddenly it was thirty-odd bodies shoved into a classroom, sitting shoulder to shoulder.

      I never bought the government line that, “children do not get or transmit covid”. Given that schools are hotbeds for everything else under the sun, from colds to headaches, it just didn’t ring true. There would be no masks, no social distancing and no adequate ventilation – all the recognised components to help stop the transmission of a novel virus.

      Instead of looking to, and learning from, Asian Pacific countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, which seemed to get the virus under control quite quickly, we proceeded with complacent exceptionalism. Like somehow we could do things differently and ‘a stiff under lip’ and ‘taking it on the chin’ would somehow be enough. This was particularly true with schools …

      For example, I remember asking the head teacher about masks for children. She replied that masks were not recommended for children under 12 but that children would, “all be facing forward”. I couldn’t believe it. Given that covid doesn’t just travel in a straight line and that children’s heads are not fixed, it didn’t strike me as the most fool-proof strategy.

      I was staggered to hear that this was official Department for Education (DfE) advice on how to combat covid – along with one-way systems, wiping down tables and, of course, ‘catch it, kill it, bin it.’ What is it with this government and its meaningless three-part slogans?

      Threatened with prosecution for keeping my kids safe

      Given the lack of any effective mitigations, I decided to keep Alex and Helena learning safely from home. I sent multiple emails with reams of scientific evidence as to why I didn’t believe it was safe for them to return to school at this time. These were all ignored. Instead, on 3 September 2020, I was sent an email from the head teacher, which left me gobsmacked.

      The email sent a link to Wigan Council, which stated that should I keep my children off school, I could be prosecuted, fined up to £2,500, given community service or sentenced to three months in jail. Nobody in their right mind would think this a fitting sentence for a vulnerable mum with an underlying health condition, trying to protect her family in the midst of a global pandemic.

      I was called by ‘Early Help’ from Wigan ‘authorities’ and told over the phone again that this could all end with my “being prosecuted”. Bear in mind that my children have never had any attendance issues in the past, that I am a qualified teacher and that I sent a synopsis of their remote learning to the head teacher every single day. No work or lessons were ever provided by the school. How was this in their best interests?

      Campaigning for covid-secure schools

      I have spent the course of the pandemic fighting for our children’s right to a safe education. There is no other work place or indoor setting in which thirty-plus bodies would be crammed into a room without masks, distancing or adequate ventilation. Why are our children being subjected to these conditions?

      I wrote to my then MP, Lisa Nandy, goodness knows how many times, I have written to every councillor in Wigan trying to highlight the issue, I have spoken at webinars and even stood outside the Cherry Gardens Pub Wigan (socially distanced and masked up) with a placard advocating safer schools. Together with other concerned parents, I have helped to found SafeEdForAll. We are doing whatever we can to try and get answers and raise awareness. It isn’t easy and we are mainly ignored.

      Then a surprising breakthrough. I posted a short video on Twitter in August 2021, explaining my concerns, comparing the care I take with my own children to protect them in comparison to how they would be treated in a school setting. I called out the lies from Dr Jenny Harries that kids would more likely be hit by a bus than get covid and that “kids are not severely affected”. Some 1,153 children were hospitalised with covid in July 2021 in England alone, five of whom sadly died:

      My name is Lisa Diaz, I’m 40 years old and I’m from Wigan.
      Some of my thoughts on schools reopening in a couple a weeks. #MakeSchoolASaferPlace pic.twitter.com/3qGYypQEzi

      — Lisa ? #SafeEdForAll (@Sandyboots2020) August 18, 2021

      To my amazement, it went viral, now over 225k views. It has been retweeted by internationally esteemed scientists and epidemiologists such as Zoe Hyde in Australia, Eric Feigl-Ding in the USA and our own Deepti Gurdasani. I was blown away.

      The power of social media

      So I decided to make more. The second video, addressed to Gavin Williamson, asks why the DofE has done away with mandatory isolations. It doesn’t seem right that my child could be sat next a pupil whose parent or sibling is at home with Covid-19. “It’s almost as if you want us to spread it about” and infect our children as quickly as possible.

      My name is Lisa Diaz, I’m 40 and I’m from Wigan

      I’ve made another little video bc I have no idea what else to do

      Just want to keep my kids safe

      This one is directed at @GavinWilliamson whilst he gets around to replying to my MP @rosie4westlancs who shares my concerns re Delta pic.twitter.com/E7Stf4sGmj

      — Lisa ? #SafeEdForAll (@Sandyboots2020) August 21, 2021

      In the third video, I address more questions to Gavin Williamson about more dubious guidance for schools reopening in September. Apparently, school leaders are now only to reach out for help when 10 percent of the school population is infected with covid. I asked the health secretary if he could release the scientific evidence and modelling which accompanies these new guidelines as “otherwise people might just think it’s an arbitrary figure which was been plucked out of the air … and we wouldn’t want that would we?”

      Also, assemblies are back on the cards. I asked him why he thinks it’s a good idea to cram 200 kids in a hall, shoulder to shoulder, without masks or ventilation … in a pandemic. To finish, I asked Boris Johnson if “kids in his old school Eton will be packed 30-plus into a poorly ventilated classroom or if it’s just the plebs’ kids like mine, who are being used in this hybrid immunity experiment”.

      For those of who aren’t absolutely sick of the sight of me, here’s another little video with more questions for @GavinWilliamson and this time one for @BorisJohnson too

      Parents, school staff & our children deserve answers pic.twitter.com/Ssg9GnfqJN

      — Lisa ? #SafeEdForAll (@Sandyboots2020) August 22, 2021

      No answers as of yet … I shan’t hold my breath.

      Yesterday I posted another to Keir ‘no if no buts’ Starmer. I expect the government not to care about me or my children. I expect more from the Labour Party. Their silence on schools being unsafe is deafening:

      I don’t have any political affiliations

      Nobody is paying me to do these videos

      My only motivation is for my children to return safely to school

      A plea to @Keir_Starmer please pic.twitter.com/aFsxiS5b5w

      — Lisa ? #SafeEdForAll (@Sandyboots2020) August 23, 2021

      Covid risks to children

      The unfettered reopening of schools in a couple of weeks will lead to a very high rate of infection and increased hospitalisation of children. You only need to glance across to the USA, to see what’s coming:

      "The numbers of cases in our hospitals in children and our children's hospitals are completely overwhelmed"

      1/

      US Coronavirus: Officials split on masking children in schools as pediatric hospitals fill up with Covid-19 patients https://t.co/GJcTRr4sq2

      — Yaneer Bar-Yam (@yaneerbaryam) August 7, 2021

      And in the words of my own MP, Rosie Cooper, “Delta has exploded the myth that children are somehow immune to covid”.

      Image of letter from Rosie Cooper MP

      This is not a benign illness for children. That has always been a lie. We do not know the long-term effects; however, medics are already seeing cognitive impairment, damage to the respiratory track and the heart, as well as other serious multi-organ complications.

      The government wants us to “live with covid”. I don’t understand what this means. Does this mean that we tolerate this high burden of illness and mortality forever? I do not understand the acceptance of that, especially not when it comes to children. We do not refuse to put seat belts on children to mitigate the consequences of a car crash, so why do we refuse to mitigate the risks of an airborne pathogen of unknown long-term effects?

      Keeping my own children safe – at home

      Given all this, I am swaying towards keeping Alex and Helena learning from home until they are fully vaccinated. I desperately want them to be in school. They want to be in school. I am gutted, as my son Alex is meant to be starting high school this time. But how can I send them into school when it’s not safe? As I said in my first video, “Just like I wouldn’t send my children into a burning building, nor will I send them into an environment highly conducive to the spread of Covid-19”.

      I know children personally who have been badly affected with long covid; they are still sick months after. Who knows if they will ever get better? It affects around one in ten children – a similar rate to adults. I will not play Russian roulette with my children’s health. Nor should I have to. The government is failing abysmally to safeguard the welfare of a generation and the opposition is failing to call this out.

      Taking a stand

      Now, I am bracing myself for another battle with the schools and Wigan local authority. I have emailed the assistant director of education and told her that I will not deregister my children from school. If they fine me, I will not pay; they will have to take me to court.

      Head teachers have discretion to authorise absence and should be using it. If school being unsafe in a pandemic isn’t an exceptional circumstance, then I don’t know what is. I hope that head teachers are encouraged to empathise.

      However, if Wigan Council want to make a martyr out of a vulnerable mum with a genetic blood clotting disorder for following the science and protecting her family, then so be it.

       

      Tags: Coronavirus
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      Extreme risks: the climate change warnings that have been largely ignored

      Next Post

      Getting Away with Murder(s): York hosts world premiere of feature-length Holocaust documentary

      Lisa Diaz

      Lisa Diaz

      Related Posts

      schools bill
      Education

      Johnson’s education power grab: from ‘liberation’ to dictatorship in one generation

      byDr Pam Jarvis
      27 June 2022
      William Gomes with Chris Nicholson at his graduation ceremony
      Education

      My road from refugee to university graduate

      byWilliam Gomes
      29 May 2022
      Child playing
      Education

      Children first: a challenge for Wakefield parliamentary candidates

      byDr Pam Jarvis
      23 May 2022
      Image of children's learning blocks.
      Education

      No place for family and community in Johnson’s England

      byDr Pam Jarvis
      30 March 2022
      Yesterday, the Beatles
      Education

      Get back to play: concerns that children’s lack of unstructured play leads to social anxiety

      byDr Pam Jarvis
      17 March 2022
      Next Post
      Image courtesy of David Wilkinson

      Getting Away with Murder(s): York hosts world premiere of feature-length Holocaust documentary

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      Johnson and Macron

      Mais oui, mon ami: Johnson and Macron display ‘le bromance’ and discuss a European Political Community

      29 June 2022
      Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill, right, and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS in Dublin

      Northern Ireland Protocol Bill: a hopeless case and a dangerous one?

      29 June 2022
      SAY NO TO PUTIN

      War and no peace: Putin’s war with Ukraine threatens us all

      29 June 2022
      Death Star

      Wakefield by-election journal: volume 4 (tech, lies and video crews on the trail of Wakefield Man)

      28 June 2022

      MOST READ

      Prime minister PMQ prep

      Brexit isn’t working – something we can all agree on

      28 June 2022
      Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill, right, and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS in Dublin

      Northern Ireland Protocol Bill: a hopeless case and a dangerous one?

      29 June 2022
      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021
      boris johnson clown poster

      Johnson, Nixon and dangerous duplicity: half a century of ‘gate’ scandals

      28 June 2022

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity Climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution Equality Farming Fishing History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Mental health NHS Northern Ireland protocol Pollution Poverty PPE Starmer Travel Ukraine
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In