A short animated film by the Los Angeles Unified School District, in partnership with Microsoft, shows Los Angeles' plan when face-to-face classes finally resume. The video was supposed to be comforting, but instead, sparked worry amongst people for showing a dystopian future in California.
Bridget Phetasy, an American writer and comedian, reposted the video on Twitter saying, "California is a dystopian nightmare."
California is a dystopian nightmare. pic.twitter.com/5nWEarQNoa
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) March 1, 2021
According to Fox News, Austin Beuther, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said that students are mandated to get vaccinated before they can return to school. If they choose not to comply, they won't be allowed to join the face-to-face classes, and instead, be directed to online classes where a lot of kids are having a hard time adjusting.
The said children that Beuther is requiring to get vaccinated are children as young as 12 years old, which are not the ideal age group for the Pfizer vaccine.
The Pfizer vaccine is ideal for people ages 16 above, but authorities are imposing children below 16 to get the dose in order to head back into the classrooms.
Aside from getting a vaccine dose, children are also expected to follow a specific system before getting a single day pass to go to school, Joel Abbott wrote in an article for Not the Bee.
In the video, it shows that children should first have a recent COVID test displaying they have negative results. This means children would be subjected to weekly COVID tests so that the system is updated with their results.
In order to get a COVID test, parents would have to take their children out around the city, which makes it such a hassle knowing that it is not safe to go around in times like this.
Students are also required to fill out an online "daily pass" form to ensure their health conditions. The system, which was developed by Microsoft, would generate a specific QR code if the individual passed the health check. The QR code will then be scanned at every entrance, together with the checking of the temperatures.
Despite passing all the requirements and getting vaccinated, children would still be required to practice the imposed safety protocols like social distancing and wearing of masks.
The video also shows that children should be afraid of the virus even though most deaths of kids ages 5-14 are not caused by the Coronavirus.
In fact, only less than a hundred out of 12,000 children who died in America are due to COVID. This is a significantly smaller number compared to other reasons like accidents.
Yet measures are stricter and kids are encouraged to be more afraid of the virus than other reasons that are far more dangerous.
The video shows children that their futures are not secure and that the current administration is not able to handle the pandemic well if kids in the future have to continuously adjust to a more uncomfortable lifestyle just to stay safe.