Education

Video Appears To Show Fairfax County Elementary Schoolers Learning Outside In Below Freezing Temps

Screenshot/Twitter/Fairfax County Parents Association

Chrissy Clark Contributor
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A mother in Fairfax County, Virginia took a video Tuesday that appears to show elementary school students eating and learning outside in below-freezing temperatures, according to posted footage.

The Fairfax County Parents Association, a nonpartisan organization aimed at removing politics from public schools, posted the video. It appears to show young children maskless, sitting on the curb of Waynewood Elementary School. Fairfax, Virginia reported a high of 27 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a forecast tracker.

The Fairfax County Parents Association told the Daily Caller that a parent took the video when she “arrived at school to drop off a water bottle her child had mistakenly left at home.”

Some children in school districts across the country are forced to eat lunch outside despite dropping temperatures. Students in New York City ate lunch outdoors in 39-degree weather, according to the New York Post reported in November 2021. (RELATED: Yale Tells Fully Vaxxed And Boosted Students They Can’t Eat Outside)

Jennifer Sellers, a spokesperson for Fairfax County Public Schools, told the Daily Caller that third-grade students were outside for a “snack and mask break.” Students were allegedly outside for less than seven minutes, per the district’s spokeswoman.

“An anonymous parent group posted a video that was taken outside of Waynewood Elementary School in Alexandria. In the video, a group of third-grade students are taking a snack and mask break in front of the school,” Sellers said. “The weather conditions were monitored, and the students were outside for less than seven minutes.”

Sellers also said that the teacher was reading a story “to keep the students entertained.”

Fairfax County Public Schools did not answer whether the “snack and mask break” was part of a COVID-19 mitigation plan.