How Forced Testing Hurts Kids

I’m just going to jump straight to the point: Forcing kids to be tested for COVID-19 is wrong. There are multiple reasons. The premise is fundamentally flawed, the science is inherently inaccurate, and the impact is indisputably harmful.

Please allow me to expound and consider the following points:

1. Mandatory testing targets completely healthy children, segregating them into groups, and discriminating against kids according to their philosophical convictions (vaxxed or unvaxxed). Such disparate and unequitable treatment of children is morally reprehensible and contrary to stated school policy.
2. Forcing children to undergo diagnostic tests in order to participate in sports, drama, etc (i.e. standard childhood experience), is the epitome of coercion. Schools are enforcing medical procedures without consent. This is directly conditioning our children to accept violations of their bodily integrity, violating  both international law and basic human rights.
   • Penetrating the nasal cavity and disturbing the protective mucus membrane potentially introduces foreign bacteria or viral fragments, which may result in healthy children contracting sickness and disease.
   • Compulsory testing forces children into taking this unnecessary risk, without benefit, and stimulates a cascading series of stressful events.
3. The psychological distress that is generated by the threat of testing, along with the anticipation of results, is undeniably detrimental: What if I test positive? What if I get quarantined? What if my friends think that I’m infected? What if I miss my game? Underneath these rational concerns lies the creeping sense that none of this is normal. Something is not right. We never had to do this before. I just want to go to school and hang with my friends!
4. Mandatory testing is an emotional burden to students. Each time they are tested, they must wait in suspense to find out if they get to stay with their friends, or if they will be forced into quarantine. Not only does this immediately interrupt and interfere with their education, it forms a residual distraction and festering sense of fear and anxiety.
5. Testing for COVID-19 is known to generate false positive results. To be fair, COVID testing also generates false negative results as well. These are irrefutable facts. The implication is that by forcing healthy children to be tested multiple times a week, there will inevitably be false positive cases. As such, an otherwise healthy child will have to endure quarantine, be removed from the classroom, and be separated from their peers for a period of time.
6. Furthermore, any child that tests positive immediately acquires the stigma of being infected. The potential for cascading criticism (“I bet she wasn’t wearing her mask”), ostracism (“I heard she’s not vaccinated”), and bullying (“I had to miss a game because of HER!”), are all very real concerns that weigh on children’s emotional health.

All of this amounts to a significant disruption in a child’s life. To deny this is to deny reality. Add in “contact tracing” and quarantining kids who “may have” been exposed, and we have a recipe for utter absurdity. It is completely irrational for educators to be forcing children into mandatory testing. This is unnatural and harmful behavior.

When we place these points within factual context, acknowledging that COVID-19 poses no statistical threat to school age children (99.999% survivability), these maniacal mandates for mandatory testing appear almost psychotic.

As concerned parents, we neither consent to our child being tested, nor condone this arbitrary and capricious violation of privacy. What you are doing is wrong. If you are just following orders, you need to realize that you are facilitating insanity. Please reconsider the enforcement of mandatory testing for unvaccinated students.

May empathy and commonsense prevail!