Α student’s mother filed a law suit against the principal of a lyceum in Thessaloniki to protest the mandatory Covid-19 self-tests for students. She claimed that the self-tests were harmful and insisted that her 15-year-old son attends in-person classes despite the law provision that students without testing at home are not allowed in school. Since Monday, the student is not allowed to enter the school, not even attend online-classes.
She even organized some other parents to join the protest on Wednesday.
Thursday morning, teachers and students at the 1st General Lyceum in Evosmos by Thessaloniki could not enter the facility as unknown persons had blocked the doors with chains and padlocks.
While it is supposed to be a school occupation by students, local media pointed out at the parents of some students s the instigators of the action.
5 out of 320 students in total said that they were refusing to carry out the self-test, which has to be done twice a week Thursdays and Mondays. Also their parents were outside the school.
The action alerted also parents who comply with the test provisions and they rushed to school to defend their children’s right to education. The accused the suing mother saying she can keep her son at home if she want to but not hinder their children.
According to state broadcaster ERT, the 5 students claimed that the self-test was violating their right to self-decision.
Speaking to Mega TV on Thursday morning, the mother who filed the lawsuit, Sofia Romeou, claimed that it was unconstitutional to force someone to undergo any medical procedure, how much more a 15-year’old without the parent’s consent.
She explained that “my objection is that we do not know the reliability of self-tests. We do not know what they may contain that may be harmful to our children’s bodies.”
Note that the only contact of the test kit with the body is a cotton tab in the nose and the mixture with the antigen liquid is done in a bottle.
“Our children are not guinea pigs. We do not know how this self-test will develop in the body,” Romeou claimed and unfolded a narrative based on conspiracy theories, virus-deniers and other QAnon nonsense including the one circulating on Greek internet that Covid-positive children will be removed from their families and placed in closed facilities.
She claimed that she had no objection that her child undergoes a molecular PCR test in a laboratory.
She added that after consulting with a lawyer she “filed a lawsuit against the school administration and everyone responsible for this psychological process that our children are going through, for the individual rights of individual freedom.”
UPD: Later on Thursday, when the mother went to prosecutor to ask why the school principal was not arrested after she had filed a lawsuit, the prosecutor ordered her own arrest.
Following her call for disobedience and a group of people posting on internet and calling on students to abstain from self-tests, the prosecutor intervened to put an end to this action once for all.
Stupidity certainly knows no national boundaries. The egocentric mother would have her son endanger others. What a wonderful role model she is.
The self-tests have no basis in medical science and are no more than a political device to try to restart broken economies, without conceding that all of the lockdowns and forcible wearing of masks have been a waste of time and money. They are totally worthless in stopping the spread of the virus, but very helpful to politicians — who can never admit that they were wrong. The same remarks apply to the non-expert “expert” committees that legitimated all of these nonsenses.
Arthur, I think your tinfoil hat is slipping…
“No basis in medical science”? “Totally worthless”? Evidence for such extraordinary claims?
Mr. Clarke, You talk the same nonsense as that ignorant mother, but unfortunately there is no cure for both of you, because – like Albert Einstein formulated it aptly – “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”….
Hard to imagine you are suggesting that wearing face masks are a “waste of time.” Also, the notion that “self-tests have no basis in medical science” is absolutely untrue. Why do you want to spread such rumours? When I go out to shop I see many who are not following basic guidelines. That is exactly why and how the virus has been spreading and why the economy is ailing. Instead of being so selfish, help end the pandemic: wear a mask, get vaccinated, practice social distancing. These are medical science.
Send the police, let them all escort to the vaccination center. Ptoblem solved.
That is how this would be solved in 1970s.
You mean in the 1930s, especially in Germany.
How utterly selfish of this woman.. so everybody else’s children will be put in jeopardy plus their families because of a selfish few.. this is why the infection rate is still high…. total stupidity!!!!
I love that prosecutor. Definitely somebody with common sense.
Didn’t parents also stage school protests when the schools first required that their students wear masks? This sounds eerily similar.
As far as taking the sample is concerned it is the same for the PCR test and the lateral flow test. It is simply cotton wool on the end of a plastic stick that is used to swab the back of the throat and the nose. There are no chemicals on the swab so if she is prepared to let her child have a PCR test why not a lateral flow test. The difference is in how the sample is subsequently analysed.
There is a solid scientific basis for both types of test. The difference is that the lateral flow test is not as sensitive as the PCR test. This means that the PCR test is more likely to detect virus in someone with a very low viral load, e.g. because the infection is very new or well past its peak, which the lateral flow test would not detect. People are most infectious when they have high viral load and the lateral flow test detects them very effectively. PCR tests are best if you want to track all people who have the virus in their system. The lateral flow test is very good at detecting people who are most likely to pass the virus on. It has the advantage of being cheap and quick while PCR is slow and expensive. It needs to be done on a very regular basis in a workplace or school environment, e.g. every 2 or 3 days.
Dear KTG, the below post was in moderation and then did not appear in the thread ?
mikeyApril 16, 2021 at 11:21 pm
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Re: no chemicals on the swab.