To the Framingham School Committee and Dr. Tremblay,
You owe the children of Framingham an apology. You owe the parents of Framingham an apology. You the school committee and superintendent, minus the new members did irreparable harm to the children of this city. You let fear over rule your job to advocate for best education of the children. You pandered to the FTA and their demands. While doing all of this the only people who suffered were the children.
Students are showing the greatest learning loss in 30 years because of extremely poor decision making by the school committee and administrators. The decisions were not based in science they were based in fear, your personal fear of the virus and the teachers union. You forced the children to mask up and follow ridiculous guidelines written with the help of teachers unions.
Then you go to a mask mandatory event and flaunt the rules because you could.
From very early on in the pandemic studies showed the least likely demographic to experience severe effects from Covid were children. You did not follow the science. Many nations around the globe did not force children out of schools and back into their homes. Those nations are not seeing the learning loss we are. Mental health took a huge toll on our children as well. You removed their safety nets and their social development. Depression among the children grew exponentially. Because you were afraid. You voted to award monetary bonuses to the teachers who worked from home during the pandemic, instead of using that money to benefit the children, you gave it to the people who forced these losses and harm on them.
Each and every one of you is complicit in the damage done to the children and you should be held accountable for those choices. Framingham’s children deserve better than you.
-Scott Hayes