Too often people dismiss teenagers as being clueless about what goes on around them.
Oh how wrong those people are.
Take, for example, COVID-19. Some of the most intelligent and nuanced conversations I’ve had about the pandemic have been with teenagers. As David Bowie once sang, they’re quite aware of what they’re going through.
One teen in particular is one who wrote me recently about what he sees at his school, Burnaby Mountain Secondary.
What he sees is alarming and so he wrote me about the situation. I’m keeping his name private to ensure there are no repercussions.
“I think that the government has done a great job in terms of controlling and stopping the widespread of COVID-19,” he wrote. “I currently attend Burnaby Mountain Secondary School and have noticed some unsettling things. I see that not everyone at school practices social distancing and sometimes do not care about masks or the COVID-19 virus.”
Indeed, that must be “unsettling” to see when you are being forced to go to a place on most days. The problem, as this student sees it, is there is a lack of awareness about the pandemic that has led to others not following restrictions.
“I am concerned because I realized I cannot control the action of others and that their poor decisions can have consequences for me,” he writes. “I live with two senior citizens and if I were to get sick, it could be very disastrous for my family.”
What this student wants – and I want too – are more specific data released by the government.
“The numbers are rising and, more importantly, there seems to be many people who are unaware or do not seem to care,” he writes. “To many people, COVID-19 statistics are just a number and nothing more. I believe a solution to this would be to publicly notify everyone about a specific area of the cases and the number of cases in the specified location. This way the public would be more concerned if the cases were close to home and would therefore stay indoors and stop the outbreak from spreading any further in that particular area. For those far away from that particular area, families would know to avoid that location and take many precautions if going to that area. This would stop the outbreak from spreading further in that area and people will be safer overall.”
It’s a difficult topic because there are privacy issues at play. But we’re seeing many businesses being transparent about COVID-19 at specific Burnaby stores, so it goes to reason that government could find more situations to do the same. And I mean more than specific care homes that have been hit by outbreaks.
It’s an interesting point and worth considering. The student goes a step further and suggests getting permission from some families of those who have died to release names of those who have been killed by COVID-19 in order to drive home the point. I don’t subscribe to this, but wanted to share more of his suggestions.
We need to do more to drive home just how terrible this situation is. Sure, we have a vaccine but a lot of people are going to die before this rollout gets anywhere near reducing the spread.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
