Parents outraged at proposal to have children disinfect public facilities

“In my opinion, professionals should take care of the disinfection, people who know what they are doing. Even if volunteers are to be employed, there are other groups that should be recruited first."

By ROSSELLA TERCATIN
School boys wear costumes as a reference to coronavirus during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Jerusalem, March 8 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
School boys wear costumes as a reference to coronavirus during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Jerusalem, March 8 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Many parents of adolescents expressed their perplexity at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that their children might be recruited to help disinfect public facilities including public transportation in the effort to contrast the spreading of coronavirus in Israel.
“It must be understood that the epidemic does not hurt children or young people, thank God, there is not one single case that we know of. We must disinfect public facilities, this virus is sensitive to bleach, and we must act in an orderly manner in order to disinfect train stations, buses and so on,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday night.
“For this purpose, over the vacation period, which might be extended, I will mobilize young people both in schools and in youth movements in a very meticulous way to help disinfect. I will also ask the IDF to take care of certain installations to this end,” he further said.
“Israel is built on the concept of public participation to the development of the country in every real and this is commendable. However, in this case I don’t think it is responsible to expose our youth to such a risk,” Jerusalem resident Yaakov Mascetti told The Jerusalem Post.
Mascetti’s youngest daughters, Avigail, 16, and Meytal, 11, are both members of a youth movement, Bnei Akiva the former and Tzofim Dati'im – Religious Scouts – the latter.
“In my opinion, professionals should take care of the disinfection, people who know what they are doing. Even if volunteers are to be employed, there are other groups that should be recruited first. Why children?,” he further said.
Asked if he would give his daughters permission to participate in such an activity, were they to ask him, Mascetti said that he was not sure.
A different opinion was expressed by Daniel Schwartz, a resident of Rehovot, and a father of three, Alex, 19, Talia, 17, and Ethan, 13.
“My children are very involved in the Tzofim Dati'im. They get a lot out of it, they go every week and every Shabbat. One day a year, to my recollection, they go out in Rehovot and pick up the trash, in conjunction with the municipality. It’s a fun activity, they spend a couple of hours doing that, someone sponsors some pizza and so on,” he explained.
According to Schwartz, provided that the activities are age appropriate, a good experience, and over everything else completely safe for the children, also disinfecting public facilities is not very different from that.
“I think it’s good, it creates a sense of belonging, of civic obligation, and it can be encouraged, again as long as it’s safe. I don’t see it as demeaning,” he added.
As of Sunday, 25 Israelis were diagnosed with coronavirus and dozens of thousands were ordered to home quarantine after returning to the country from abroad or over possible contacts with infected people. Over 106,000 people have contracted the virus in the world, with the epidemic accelerating in many countries, while the severe restrictive measures implemented over a month ago seemed to have borne fruit in China in slowing the outbreak in China where it started.
Less than 24 hours after Netanyahu’s words, some youth movements, including the religious Zionist movement Bnei Akiva, seemed to be ready to respond to the appeal.
“Following the Prime Minister’s remarks last night, the movement is preparing to offer the assistance of tens of thousands of its members with disinfecting public transportation and is ready for any other challenges that may arise,” Bnei Akiva said in a public statement, also announcing that in accordance to the authorities’ directives they would cancel an event with thousands of participants scheduled for next Thursday.
Another Jerusalem resident, Yisrael Campbell-Hochstein has three children in Bnei Akiva - 16-year-old twins Tuvia and Avigail and 13-year-old Raphael. He told the Post that he would allow them to go if they were to ask him.
However, he does also not support Netanyahu’s idea.
“It seems a little crazy to send the kids in first, we already send them first when they are 18. Even if he said that they would be protected, I would not trust him, as I don’t trust him on other things,” he explained.
“I’m all in favor of kids helping, but in this case, I think it would be better to ask adults,” he concluded.
Racheli Rappaport, a resident of Tel Aviv, has no doubt that she would not let her 16-year-old son participate in the disinfecting activities.
“Itamar already volunteers for the Magen David Adom, he is already exposed enough,” she said.
Rappaport explained that when the ambulance receives a call for a suspected case of coronavirus contamination, they drop young volunteers off and terminate their shift.
“I don’t think any parent would allow their children to participate in disinfection,” she added, highlighting that she would be happy for Itamar to take part in other forms of volunteerism to help in the face of the epidemic.
“The notion that children do not get coronavirus is not clear to me. I think that the evidence is that they are less likely to get serious cases, we don’t really know that they don’t get it at all and I’m worried that they will pass it on to other people,” commented Mindy Schimmel, who spoke to the Jerusalem Post with her 16-year-old daughter Yona. “I’m convinced that it’s a reasonable thing to ask them.”
“We cannot take this responsibility, what if one was to get sick or worse?” echoed Yona. “Also, we were supposed to go on the Poland school-trip and it got canceled because of the coronavirus scare. It is ironic that they are scared of sending us to Poland, but they are fine with us doing this.”