Schools help to spread coronavirus so they should be shut

I cannot agree with your editorial on schools closing (‘It would be wrong to end flights and wrong not to reopen schools,’ December 22).

While many workers like politicians, office workers and even journalists work from home, it seems that whoever is writing this needs to look at the facts of the spread of the virus. It is a fact that one of the main contributors to the spread of the virus is schools.

While others, including News Letter staff, are able to work from home, surely teachers can do the same. They use the poorer children as a reason for keeping schools open, but this can be overcome.

You fail to mention the safety of teachers, workers, vulnerable children and also the families of all those at school. Unlike the NHS and care homes, schools are not an emergency resource — they can close for a few weeks to help bring the virus under control.

To keep schools open and stop people going for a walk together, or not allowing people to have a bubble with close relatives, defeats the purpose of lockdown.

I think school should be more than a child-minding business.

John Mulholland, Doagh

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