In the shadow of the heavy barrage in the north and about a week before the start of the school year, Kathy Boomer, a Nahariya resident and member of Fight for the North headquarters, speaks about the fears of children going back to school.
“The North is at war,” writes Boomer. “Every day, a series of alarms, loud skies, planes, artillery, drones, hijackings and crashes – and most of them without alarms. Unfortunately, this is our routine. According to the laws of nature, we parents take care of our children first – their sense of security and protection from any danger. So they have learned not to go to the beach because it is dangerous there, that almost no park is safe because there is no protection there, and that they run for shelter at every bang and alarm – to the extent that our children run for shelter at night in their sleep.”
“No matter how old they are, we accompany them to the school gate so that they are not surprised by a siren on the way, or hit by a car or intercepted. We are not there to protect them. Our children have done the whole of last year on their own, even accompanying their younger siblings. When they pass the gate of a school, kindergarten or day care center, we pass the protection baton to the staff of that educational institution, who provide 100% protection for our children.”
“And that’s exactly where we failed. The description of the ‘best protection’, namely laying against the wall with your head in your hands, is the most unprotected thing they could think of. It doesn’t give the child a feeling of security and safety, on the contrary, it gives them fear, worry, despair, crying, stagnation, helplessness and much, much more besides a feeling of security.”
Emotional stress
Boomer points to the emotional burden that the situation brings: “Not everyone understands it, but all children in the North have a huge wound in their mental health. Some children have already shown it, some are still internalizing it, and some choose to hide it until it explodes. Children with nightmares at night, fear of abandonment, fear of every little rustle, outbursts of tears and anger, this weighs heavily on them.”
Calling on decision-makers to act, she said: “Imagine for a second your child, grandchild, niece or nephew lying on the floor in the school hallway with their hands on their head during a siren, surrounded by three to four classrooms full of children like them, frightened and crying.”
“There is no one to protect them, no one to reassure them and make them feel safe. They are alone, with their faces on the ground, and in the background you can hear a siren and the sound of massive interceptions and impacts.”
“Every child, no matter what age, needs comprehensive protection. Kindergartens, preschools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. It is not possible that we as parents run to emergency shelters when sirens sound and at the same time our children are left alone, with bare hands on their heads and their heads on the ground. We need to give the children a therapeutic hug, restore their damaged mental health and bring joy and playfulness back into their eyes.”
“The power is in our hands, the parents! A child’s life is worth a million times more than learning another sentence in English or solving a math problem. Without protection, children will stay at home.”
