Patwin Elementary School in California requires that students eat outdoors due to COVID-19. So what happens if it rains during lunch time? Well, it doesn’t seem as though much changes.
“Rain is forecasted this week which will present an added challenge to our lunch routines, DJUSD students are required to eat outside at this time due to COVID restrictions. I am asking you to send your children to school with rain gear and warm jackets.” Principle Gay Bourguignon said in a notice to parents.
The school forces children to eat outdoors allegedly out of regard for their health and safety, but also expects them to sit outdoors in the cold rain for extended periods of time, and undoubtedly eat wet food.
“The inhumane treatment of children continues from masking all day, even outdoors, to having to sit on hot cement and now eating lunch in the rain.” Said Jonathan Zachreson founder of “Reopen California Schools”.
The treatment of these elementary school children is cruel, and unusual. Their pandemic related restrictions have no regard for the well being of their students.
What happens if their food becomes wet, and the students lose their desire to eat that food? Will they be let inside and be given a new meal? Or will they be left hungry?
“Cruelty to children has been normalized in California.” Said California State Legislator Kevin Kiley.
After backlash from parents concerned for their children, the Davis Joint Unified School district (DJUSD) released a statement notifying guardians that the children would be permitted to eat inside.
The fact that the idea of forcing students outside in the rain was even entertained, is an unthinkable sort of mistreatment by the district.
