N95 Masks and Human Rights: Student Demands for COVID Protections

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In recent weeks, high school students across the U.S. have walked out of campuses in protest of what some students view as COVID protocols that are too lax and/or not enforced. N95 masks, rapid testing for themselves and school staff, and increased access to outdoor space during lunches–these are some of their demands. These students are exercising their freedom of opinion and assembly. Do the students in your classroom know their rights?

 
 

Historical Precedent

Student protest has a long history in the United States. In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that student protest was protected under the First Amendment. A landmark case, Tinker v. Des Moines was brought by high school students who had been disciplined by their school for wearing black armbands in protest against the war in Vietnam. More recently, students in Parkland, Florida sparked a student movement against gun violence after a mass shooting at their school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“What ties those movements together is these are all times when grown-ups have failed young people, where the politics of adults have really let down teenagers,” says Thai Jones, a lecturer at Columbia University who studies social movements. “And so young people have decided to take matters into their own hands.” [1]

In Boston, Massachusetts, students decried the “lack of care” they saw from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In St. Paul, Minnesota, one student stated that, “We’re not going to back down until they listen to us.” In Oakland, California, three campuses were forced to close when students and teachers banded together in protest and stayed home.

Fighting for Human Rights

What these protests–COVID-related and historical–have in common is students’ defending their human rights. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all people, including children, have the right to an education (Article 26). Policies which require students to remain on campus without sufficient PPE or access to testing is a violation of this right.

“Teaching is already a stressful job. Doing so when I’m fearing for my life and for students’ lives and the lives of their families is just on a different level,” Joanne Yi, a teacher at Augustus Hawkins in South Los Angeles told The Guardian. [2]

Under current conditions and without protective measures, students are not receiving the education they deserve. They are also risking their health. According to Article 25 of the UDHR, all people have the right to an adequate standard of living, including access to medical care. On-campus classes not only risk the health of teachers and students, but also the health of anyone they live with–children who are not old enough to be vaccinated, parents, and elderly grandparents.

History shows us that youth protest movements can be highly effective tools for making change. We applaud the students who are fighting for their human rights during the continued global pandemic. How are you supporting your students in their defense of human rights today?

Resources

Notes

[1] Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson, “Students, seeing lax coronavirus protocols, walk out and call in sick to protest in-person classes,” The Washington Post, 14 Janaury 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/01/14/students-walkout-covid-safety/.

[2] Maanvi Singh, “More than 1,200 Oakland students pledge to stay home unless schools improve Covid safety,” The Guardian, 19 Janaury 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/18/school-strikes-covid-safety-omicron-oakland.