McConnell Wants To Protect Schools From Liability, Not Children From COVID-19 Death

By NewsHound Ellen — May 15, 2020

Mitch McConnell wants Americans to be “brave enough” to send their kids back to school but schools don’t have to be brave enough to make sure they protect students from the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides admitting that oh, I forgot, Obama did leave Trump a pandemic plan, McConnell also revealed his priority in reopening schools. Spoiler alert: It’s not students’ health and wellbeing.

Actually, the only health and safety that McConnell does seem to care about are that of business owners’ and institutions’ bank accounts. This is what McConnell told Bret Baier Thursday about the next coronavirus relief bill.

MCCONNELL: And our red line is going to be liability protections for those who are brave enough to begin to open up the economy again in the wake of the trial lawyers who are descending already on hospitals and doctors and businesses. As of about a week and a half ago, 771 lawsuits had already been filed. So we’re working on a narrowly crafted protection from liability for things directly related to the coronavirus. And that will have to a be a part of any package, because if we’re really going to get the economy up and going again, people have to be brave enough to begin to engage in economic activity. How about the presidents of universities? Are they willing to open up with the fall or are we going to have another period of time where not only k-12 students but potentially college students are still at home?
All of those questions need to be answered by the fall. Liability protection will help provide the answer.

Later, in the interview, McConnell said he wants schools “to feel comfortable to be able to open up this fall. And I think answering this liability question’s a big part of that.”

He never said anything about protecting students from illness or death. They're not on his priority list.

Explore more

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.