White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a press conference Thursday that “science should not stand in the way of” the total reopening of schools for the next academic year, and then criticized the coverage of his comments as a “case study on media bias”.
When parents were asked about President Donald Trump’s message, as some schools choose to fully connect in the coming weeks, McEnany said, “The president has stated unequivocally that he wants schools to open.”
“And I was in the Oval talking to him about it,” he said. “When it says open, it means completely open, kids can go to school every day. Science shouldn’t get in the way of this.”
He added that the United States is an “outlier” among Western nations in terms of getting children back to school, adding that “science is on our side here and we encourage localities and states to simply follow science and open our schools. ” “
“It is very harmful to our children,” he said. “There is a lack of reports of abuse, there are mental depressions that are not addressed, suicidal ideas that are not addressed when students are not in school. Our schools are extremely important, they are essential, and they must reopen.”
McEnany’s comments come as the Trump administration has pushed for schools to fully open to students five days a week. Districts across the country face the puzzle of how best to provide education for students while keeping them, teachers, and staff safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Many districts are proposing a hybrid model, where students switch between online learning and a few days in the classroom so that appropriate security measures can be taken. The Trump administration criticized those plans, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that a mixed model of virtual and in-person learning “is not a valid option for families.”
McEnany called Twitter after her briefing and called the coverage of her comments a “case study on media bias.”
“I said, ‘Science is very clear on this … science is on our side here. We encourage our localities and states to simply follow science. Open our schools,'” McEnany wrote. “But let the media deceitfully suggest that I was doing the opposite!”
According to administration guidelines, provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the greatest risk of COVID-19 spreading in schools is having “full-size in-person classes, activities, and events” and where “Students are not separated, sharing materials or supplies for the classroom and mixing between classes and activities.”
On Sunday, DeVos declined to say whether those guidelines should be followed uniformly.
“The CDC guidelines are just that, they should be flexible and should be applied as appropriate to the situation,” he said.
The Trump administration has focused on schools as a major issue as coronavirus cases increase in much of the U.S.
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday that showed former Vice President Joe Biden, the alleged 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, up to 15 points also showed that a majority of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of school reopens.
The poll showed that 61 percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of schools, and only 29 percent approve. On whether schools will be safe to send students to in the fall, 62 percent said they feel it would be unsafe, compared to 31 percent who think schools will be safe.
“The president and his administration are playing with the health of our children,” Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told the “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We all want our children to go back to school. Teachers do. Parents do. And children do. But they must return safely.”
