Students In Farmington Stage “Walk Out” Over School COVID-19 Policies

As the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic nears the end of its second year, many people have become accustomed to the mitigation policies instituted by by local and federal government agencies.

Clearly, some people are skeptical about the effectiveness (I'm sorry...  efficacy) of these policies.  This seems to be especially true when it comes to policies instituted by some Maine school districts.

On Friday, a group of students (and parents) in Farmington decided to stage a walk out in protest of the mandates.

According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, at about 10 AM on Friday (October 22nd) sixty students from Mount Blue High School staged a 20 minute long walkout.  They were joined by several parents.  There were also a handful of students from Mount Blue Middle School who participated.

The protest was organized by Jesse Sillanpaa.  He is the parent of two high school students and he is the former director on the Regional School Unit 9 board of directors.  Sillanpaa resigned from that position in September.

Among the reasons for the protest were universal masking, quarantining requirements, and the fact that different schools have different policies.

Read more about the walk out HERE.

When you ask someone about their feelings regarding these policies, you will get a wide range of responses.  You'll encounter people who believe we should still be in a lockdown, people who believe the everyone should be free to take only the precautions they want to, and every opinion in between.  Most people fall somewhere in the middle.

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