Now you see it. Now you don’t.
Prince William County School Board Chairman At-large Dr. Babur Lateef deleted a post to a Twitter account he uses to communicate with constituents. In the Tweet, he encouraged people to “never forget” and to “never forgive” politicians, press, and public health officials for, in his words, providing misinformation that led to an extended closure of public schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lateef made the post on Saturday, August 20, and deleted it within 24 hours. The post sparked outrage from multiple fellow Democrats, who chastised him for his comments and were supportive of the classroom closures.
Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam was the first in the nation to shutter public schools in light of the coronavirus in March 2020. In a statement sent to Potomac Local News today, Lateef said Northam was correct to close schools but added schools should have been reopened by Summer 2020.
Prince William County sent children back to class in December of that year and led the region in returning students to the classroom.
“My tweet was born of frustration with the devastating learning loss that continues to be seen in SOL scores and the impact on child mental health. I fought to open but was only able to open in person for special education students. The [Virginia Department of Education] outlined a strategy to open that we did not follow until late October,” Lateef said.
Lateef is expected to seek a second term as School Board Chairman At-large when he is up for reelection in November 2023. He vows to never again close schools in a similar manner.
“I won’t let it happen again,” said Lateef. “Public health officials and politicians got it right in many states that were able to open safely,” adds Lateef. Florida was one of the multiple states that, for the most part, kept open public schools while enforcing strict rules on retirement homes to protect vulnerable senior citizens from catching the virus.
As we’ve reported, the damage from the school closures is apparent in the most recent wave of Standards of Learning test scores released Thursday, August 18. Those released last year Scores across Virginia’s 183 public school systems plummeted in the wake of school closures that sent children and their parents scrambling to learn online from home.
Today marks the first day of the 2022-23 school year in Prince William County. More than 90,000 students were expected to return to class.
