Congratulations, Randi Weingarten: YOU Built this.

The Intercept tells the sad tale of a couple in Washington, D.C. who feared for their children’s health because COVID-19 protocols at their elementary school were not clearly established. So, the mother, a working one, kept her children out of school.

But by August, Kasargod-Staub and her husband were watching Delta variant cases rise across the region. When her husband went to the school to review its safety protocols, he left alarmed, having learned that the HVAC system was broken and there was no plan for outdoor eating. Kasaragod-Staub, who had served as PTA president the year before, called up the principal to discuss.

“The policies were vague, everyone was scrambling, so we decided to keep [our kids] home for the first week of school in the hopes that [D.C. Public Schools] would realize they made a mistake and catch up with things like testing and outdoor eating,” she told The Intercept. “It feels a little dumb now, but I genuinely thought things would change and they’d figure safety stuff out.”

The policies are vague because American Federation of Teachers (ATF) President Weingarten, and her ilk over at the NEA (National Education Association) are making things up as they go along. But it is hard to see that you’re being duped, when you’ve been blinded by fear.

Things didn’t change, and the children stayed home. Pretty soon, Kasargod-Staub was notified that her family was being referred to D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency due to her kids’ unexcused absences. “I have a lot of privilege, I know the system, and it was still terrifying,” she said. “My mind immediately goes to, ‘Where will this lead? Are they going to take away my kids?’”

The school district reported Kasargod-Staub to D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency for “potential neglect;” all because the government refuses to address the problems that the government created, and plants the blame squarely on the parents.

It’s terrifying, all right. Terrifying that this poor woman is so invested in a system that has betrayed her, her children, and the children of America.

But here’s the most grievous part of this tale: these parents are fine with being locked into the public school. In fact, Kasargod-Staub wanted to ensure the school did not lose funding because she pulled her children out.

Head, meet desk.

Yeah, there’s definitely abuse—but not by the parents. There’s also a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Kasargod-Staub and her husband discussed whether they should formally pull their kids out, but they felt extremely committed to their school. “I was the freaking PTA president, my Ph.D. work is around public education, and I didn’t want my Title I elementary to lose my kids’ per-pupil funding,” she explained. While her unvaccinated kids were not eligible for a remote learning option through D.C. Public Schools, which requires a doctor to certify that virtual school is necessary, she and her husband provided them with learning supplements and later enrolled them in a national online school for more structure.

And if D.C. had school choice, Kasargod-Staub would be able to choose between continuing distance learning for her children, or sending them to another school that meets her desired standards of safety. Currently, both D.C. and New York do not allow these options to parents who are hesitant to return their children back in school due to fear of COVID. Weingarten and her apparatchiks know this, and know it would quickly erode their corrupt behemoth of an organization.

Now that the federal government has made COVID protocols a thing on which to base school re-openings, as well as attendance and participation, shouldn’t a parent be able to say, “I think this school is unsafe and I’m pulling my child out”? Or be able to send their child to a school that has protocols in place to their liking?

That would be what common sense measures entail. But Teachers Unions and their agenda have no alliance with common sense.

Instead, you have parents who are in perpetual angst over a virus where, according to the CDC data, less than 700 children in the U.S. have died as a result of COVID; and dig deeper and the data shows that comorbidities and other underlying factors played a part in their demise. This is out of the almost 800,000 deaths over the course of this pandemic. Children who contract COVID are affected less adversely than adults, and according to CDC and other studies, the children who recover do so quickly, and maintain stronger antibodies.

But Weingarten and her fellow teachers unions wanted to make this a cudgel, and for vulnerable people who choose to be led by the nose, rather than do their own research, and follow the science, they have succeeded. However, instead of acknowledging that they have created a huge problem with their fear scenarios of COVID outbreaks and children and teachers dying, then claiming that their protocols would help mitigate any problems, they treat the parents as delinquent and negligent for acting on those fears. To add insult to injury, they further sic the child protective services arm of government on them. The Intercept makes the distinction that these cases appear to be more racially skewed, with parents of color being reported to child protective services more than white parents.

What. A. Shock.

Karsargod-Stove got a taste of what people without “privilege,” as she termed it, have to go through. Yet, she still trusts the government and systems that put her in this position in the first place. She is not the only one experiencing this invasion into her life of inept and overreaching government:

In Washington, D.C., at least 90 families with Covid-19 safety concerns have been referred to child protective services for “educational neglect,” which the Department of Health and Human Services defines as a parent or guardian’s failure to provide a child with appropriate schooling. As of October 8, about 30 of those referrals had been upgraded to more serious investigations, Paul Kihn, the deputy mayor for education, said at the time. (His office declined to provide more recent figures.) In one warning letter sent to another D.C. parent and reviewed by The Intercept, the school district threatened referral not only to the Child and Family Services Agency but also to the city’s juvenile probation agency.

It’s time for these parents to wake up and join the many organized parents groups who are fighting against vaccine mandates for their children. What Karsargod-Stove and others are going through is part and parcel of the same evil with a different face.