Kirkland mom says making kids eat lunch outside in cold, wet weather is ‘child abuse’

Some have called the state government’s response to COVID-19 a “catastrophic mental health crisis with our children.” Now, an email from a Kirkland school principal to parents is further fueling a “firestorm” among families – and for a mom of two at Lakeview Elementary.

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Jody Isaacson, who has two kids attending Lakeview, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that she is fighting back against the school’s rule that kids must eat lunch outside.

An email sent on Jan. 1 by the school’s principal, Heather Frazier, states: “On Sundays during January-February, I will send a brief message indicating whether students will be eating indoors due to frigid weather in the coming week. This week students will remain eating outdoors as temperatures are expected to be above 38 degrees.”

How did Isaacson take the news that her children and their classmates would sitting outside for lunch, even if temperatures plunged to 6 degrees above freezing?

“I had to clean the water that I spat out of my mouth onto my lap first because it was absolutely ridiculous,” Isaacson said.

“Our kids are political actors in a show they don’t want to be in,” she added. “When we are putting kids in 38-degree weather because we want to put on a show and pretend we’re doing something about COVID, … it’s just completely absurd.”

According to Isaacson, Lakeview students – who have been eating outside all year – have 15 minutes for lunch, must socially distance while eating, and are “not allowed to speak in outside voices” because, apparently, that contributes to the spread of COVID.

“The ASPCA would take our dogs away if we kept them outside in this weather,” Isaacson noted. “What is not abusive about this? Where did we lose our moral compass when it comes to children?”

“You can’t make this stuff up,” the Kirkland mom continued.

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Before winter break, she says one of her children “came home soaking wet one day because rain was blowing sideways while she was eating and she got drenched.”

“We don’t do this to prisoners,” Isaacson said. “Prisoners are not made to be outside in wet weather. We need to be better than this.”

Listen to Dori’s entire interview with Kirkland mom Jody Isaacson here:

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.