As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

This is really unfortunate second order effect of lockdowns. You see the SAT scores go down as well and some groups don't want to admit the negative effects of in a shift to in home learning, especially among the most vulnerable groups. And we're not even honest about it and just retreat to the idea of getting rid of standardized tests altogether to mask over the achievement gap.

the youngest have never mattered, the old steal from them all the same.

The sun is shining, the vaccines are flowing, I can eat inside now, I am feeling optimistic today.

But on my grey days: I wonder how long the mental health trauma of all this will last. Besides school-age depression, there was a noticeable uptick in drug overdoses. (https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/16/as-pandemic-ushered-in-i...) And, anecdotally, I have several friends and acquaintances who developed severe drug issues during the various stages of lockdown. I fear there’s going to be a lot of dark matter out there, and we won’t detect it until we see the knock-on effects for years down the road.

This is not an anti-lockdown screed, I feel like I must say. My dad went into the ICU for something non-COVID in December, and the hospitals then were at the breaking point. (At least where I was.) We needed to control this virus somehow. But we will be feeling this for a long time to come.

I predict California will also be full remote for the coming school year as well.

It’s almost like people don’t actually care for the children, they just know of the social consequences of crossing those who claim they do.