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Collected Item: “New Jersey School Bus Stop, September 2020”

Give your story a title.

New Jersey School Bus Stop, September 2020

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Photo I took this morning

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

My 11 year old was not interested in doing a first day of school photo like we've done in the past. I get that it's embarrassing since "nobody else's parents walk around with big cameras." But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to preserve the moment for posterity, so I snuck a picture with my phone and cropped it afterward. I think the photo says a lot about the moment without words- the American flag, the masks, and the way the two girls are talking to each other while staying at least six feet apart. The flag represents, to me, the event that broke the idea of American exceptionalism for Americans in denial. Despite my prediction that Trump would screw up the response to the virus back in March, I was sure we'd be back to normal by the fall. I thought someone would get Trump to do the right thing. All I can say is I'm glad to live in one of the few states with strict rules that have brought our March and April infection rates low enough to have safe, hybrid, public education.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#school, #mask, #backtoschool, #hybrid, #teach, #education, #kids, #socialdistance, #usa, #nj, #anxiety, #pandemic, #restrictions

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Caiti Weiser

Give this story a date.

2020-09-10T07:30
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