NYC Gazette

Closing New York City public schools in response to COVID-19 is indoctrinating students into a lifestyle that is very different from their parent’s childhood experience, according to a medical expert.

“Children are becoming more and more virtual and having less and less contact with reality and less contact with each other, which leads to less human interaction, and I don't know how that's going to affect them but I think that we need to stand up against that,” said Dr. Karin Burkhard, a child and adolescent psychiatry specialist in Hauppauge.

Burkhard was among hundreds of New Yorkers who attended an anti-lockdown rally organized by Liberate New York on Nov. 22 against renewed COVID-19 restrictions that include closing public schools.

“There's zero evidence that our children are even at risk for the virus,” Burkhard told the NYC Gazette. “Their rate of illness, their rate of infection and their rate of death is very small.”

The rally started at Union Square Park on East 14th Street with protestors marching down University Place to Washington Square Park on West Fourth Street.

"A lot of people are struggling," Burkhard said. "They work at home. Their kids are home. They're trying to teach them and work and run the household at the same time. What I don't understand is why people aren't screaming about this. The only way to reckon it is fear. People are fearful."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that public schools are closing and will remain shuttered through Thanksgiving, according to ABC7

“New York City has reached the 3% testing positivity seven-day average threshold,” de Blasio said Nov. 18 on Twitter. “Unfortunately this means public school buildings will be closed as of [Nov. 19] out of an abundance of caution. We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19.”

As of Nov. 23, a total of 280,598 coronavirus cases have been reported and 19,544 deaths, according to the New York City COVID-19 dashboard.

“There's a lot of politics involved with the teacher's unions and not wanting to go to school," Burkhard said in an interview. "Parents have to start creating their own community with people that get together with their children so that they learn that socializing is normal."

Since the lockdowns began in mid-March, Burkhard said she has noticed a shift in her ongoing practice.

“I have noticed an increase in referrals, especially in adolescents with anxiety and depression," she said. "The suicide rate was really bad to begin with and now it’s just getting worse and worse among teenagers.” 

According to Psychology Today, more than 2,000 14- to-18-year-olds die by suicide annually.