Children of America, You’ve Been Gaslit at Lunchtime

 

...KEY POINTS

• The psychological damage of gaslighting is occurring at a key trusted site: our school lunchrooms.
• Gaslighting destabilizes a person’s sense of truth and reality, and leads to an inability to trust oneself to make good decisions.
• Manipulating others' sense of reality amplifies the power of the institution doing the gaslighting.

...The Denial of Facts in Plain Sight

Yet, every day in countless lunchrooms across America, as both the New York and Chicago school districts have noted, children are eating and talking loudly, unmasked, in crowded indoor spaces without proper ventilation. This reality goes largely unchallenged, although recently, Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease and Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, has expressed concerns that CDC guidance for schools is outdated because it fails to account for the extremely contagious delta variant.

Even so, the CDC’s current advice to prevent transmission of COVID-19 flat out contradicts the school cafeteria as safe. From the CDC website last updated May 7, 2021, “Prevention of COVID-19 transmission includes physical distancing, community use of well-fitting masks (e.g., barrier face coverings, procedure/surgical masks), adequate ventilation, and avoidance of crowded indoor spaces. These methods will reduce transmission both from inhalation of virus and deposition of virus on exposed mucous membranes.”

This institutional denial of reality goes virtually undetected because we trust and depend on school administrators who tell us they want safe learning and are following CDC and state public health guidance. Students trust and depend on their schools for their safety, health, and protection...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/compassion-works/202109/children-america-you-ve-been-gaslit-lunchtime