‘How can you preach about social distancing and allow this?’: Meet the parents pulling their children out of school

“I’m just doing what is best to protect my family,” Scott Whiten, 47, tells me over email from his home in Boston, Lincolnshire. Whiten has 4 children – Jarrod, 24, Lewis, 19, Marni, 16, and his youngest, Sonny – who is the only one still at school. Last Friday he decided to remove the nine-year-old, who has asthma, from full-time education as a way to safeguard his family during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Under legislation in England and Wales parents whose children are absent from school during term time can be fined by their local council up to £60 per day, an amount that rises to £120 for each parent if they do not pay within 21 days. But Whiten says he doesn’t care about the money and is taking matters into his own hands.

“We are stuck between a rock and a hard place but I am doing what I think is best for the safety of my family. I look, listen and watch and if things don’t move quick enough then I’m prepared to do what I need to do to protect my family the best I can,” he says. “How can you preach about social distancing, the banning of group gatherings yet allow kids to go to school?”

On Monday Boris Johnson introduced a raft of “social distancing” measures banning mass gatherings, asking people to work from home where possible and to not visit pubs, restaurants, theatres or undertake any non-essential travel. It is hoped this will curb the continued coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected over 200,000 people worldwide.

But Johnson’s government did not go as far as many neighbouring European countries including Ireland, Spain and Italy, who have closed schools, universities and colleges for the foreseeable future, as part of the package. On Wednesday Scotland and Wales also announced schools would be closing.

It has been suggested that schools in England are yet to close because the government wants to avoid the potential impact on staffing that would occur if parents were needed for childcare instead of as medical staff or as care workers in hospitals and elsewhere. But now Johnson is under increasing pressure, following criticism from parents and teachers, to close schools. A hashtag #schoolclosureUK has been trending on Twitter since his speech on Monday.

Whiten says his son’s school have actually been supportive in his decision to remove his child, because of his ongoing health problems, but that they have been unable to provide any learning materials or “at home work packs” until the government issues a notice for official closure.

Maria Chamberlain, 38, from the Wirral tells The Independent she has also taken matters into her own hands and removed her five-year-old Raffy from school on Monday because Maria has an underlying health condition and wanted to decrease her risk of exposure to coronavirus.

“I think the government has been far too vague in communicating its message across to the public,” she says. “[There is] a lack of clarity and message inconsistency. It’s absurd and does nothing to instil confidence.”

She also says she worries that it is damaging for the mental health of children: “I can’t imagine what it’s doing to the mental health of kids who see that it’s not safe for adults to go to work but somehow fine for them to go to school? I think the social effects of this cumulative anxiety are going to stay with us long after a vaccination has been found.”

Bernadette Chapman, 45, a business consultant from Essex has also taken her youngest child, Lena, 10, out of school because she has problems with her immune system. “Lena developed a persistent cough on Saturday. We were confused as to whether it was ok to send [her] in or whether that fell under government guidelines. In the end we decided to assume we needed to keep [her] off.

Her daughter has told her she feels “sad” about what is going on.

Although she worries about those parents who cannot easily look after their children at home and does empathise with the government position on staffing. “I think this could be very problematic for many parents still working, especially those on the frontline. For me it is easy, I am here so having my children home does not impact on my business. But what about NHS staff? If children are home they cannot go into work,” she says.

Dan Wyke, 47, from Worthing has been keeping his daughter at home from school this week as he has ME, which means he is in a higher risk category [Dr Charles Shepherd, chief medical advisor of the ME Association, has said an infection like Covid-19 will “almost certainly cause a relapse”]. “Our main concern as a family has been about our daughter catching Covid-19 at school and bringing it home to me,” he says.

“I felt the government’s advice to keep schools open was inconsistent with their other advice to limit social contact,” says Wyke. “It is also putting people like me and other families where someone has a chronic illness or serious underlying health condition at risk.”

As the government faces increasing pressure and parents willing to remove their children from school, regardless of the cost, Boris Johnson must decide whether to follow the rest of the UK.