From a New York Times article about life in college, “‘An Emotional Hellscape’: Frayed Nerves for the Teachers of Unmasked Students”:
Irwin Bernstein, an 88-year-old psychology professor, said the University of Georgia had lured him out of retirement this fall. But when he posted a “No mask, No class” sign in his classroom, his department head told him to take it down “since I was in violation of the governor’s order.”Imagine having that moment be your last as a teacher.
At his next class, a student resisted wearing a mask, saying it was uncomfortable, he recalled. He announced that he was retiring — again — and walked out of class.
The kind of selfishness that student showed is what we see around us in downstate Illinois every day, from all sorts of people. It’s what’s prompted a local bookstore owner to close and move his bookstore back to Chicago — he’s tired of arguing with people who refuse to wear masks in his store, even after he tells them that his children are too young to be vaccinated.
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September 11: An article from The Red & Black (University of Georgia) has much more on Irwin Bernstein’s encounter with an unmasked student in his class. An excerpt:
The 88-year-old psychology professor explained to the student that he could die from COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and age-related problems, Bernstein said in an email to The Red & Black.[Yes, there’s a mask mandate in Illinois. But the local response is to ignore it. I’ve rewritten a sentence to make clear that the selfishness here comes from all quarters.]
Only about 15 minutes into the Tuesday lecture, which consisted of Bernstein taking the student attendance, he asked the student to pull her mask up again, but this time, the student did not respond.
Bernstein, who was already informed that two of his absent students tested positive for COVID-19, then announced his resignation on the spot and left the class immediately.
“At that point I said that whereas I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force, I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student during this Pandemic,” Bernstein said in an email to The Red & Black. “I then resigned my retiree-rehire position.”
comments: 4
And for another viewpoint from within an university: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2021/08/goddam-mississippi.html
Here in KS -- the university has mandated masks inside any of the campus buildings. But the Young R's group held a Rally for Freedom and it's the role of the individual to decide to wear a mask because "here in America, we believe in the power of the individual, and it should be the individual who chooses."
Kirsten
Thanks, Kirsten. I was surprised to read that someone in the Mississippi meeting said the quiet part out loud — that they’re afraid they’ll lose customers. I strongly suspect that’s why vaccination at my university is “expected” rather than required. But now all state schools are requiring that students be vaccinated.
Mississippi still leads my Illinois county in vaccinations. And speaking of vaccinations, you do need them for all kinds of settings, don’t you? It’s almost — almost! — as if some people have latched onto this one as a wedge issue.
As a follow-up, I did a search about religious exemptions and the vaccine. NBC had an interesting article from just a few days ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/religious-exemptions-vaccine-mandates-could-test-sincerely-held-beliefs-n1278514
Title in case the link doesn't work: Religious exemptions to vaccine mandates could test 'sincerely held beliefs'
Could be interesting court battles as to date no major organized religion has come out against it.
Kirsten
That’ll be interesting. Hard to think of religious freedom as including the right to spread disease.
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