Stephane Bilodeau

We Protected Our Children By Homeschooling During COVID, And The Science Proves We Were Right I’ve had it with the gaslighting. For years, those of us who chose to homeschool during the pandemic were labeled paranoid. Overprotective. Helicopter parents overreacting to what everyone insisted was “a cold” for kids. Now the studies have come in. And guess what? We were right all along. The data is brutal and vindicating. Children who catch COVID more than once face double the risk of long COVID. Their chance of myocarditis jumps 3.6 times higher than kids with just one infection. They’re developing kidney damage, brain issues, and symptoms in practically every organ system researchers have bothered to check. This is exactly why we pulled our kids from school We saw what was happening while everyone else played pretend. Schools became giant COVID incubators with their crowded classrooms, inadequate ventilation, and policies that seemed designed to maximize infection. Large Study The RECOVER study followed 465,000 children. After a second infection, kids faced more than double the risk of long COVID diagnosis. Their myocarditis risk skyrocketed. They became nearly twice as likely to develop kidney injury, electrolyte problems, and a whole host of other serious conditions. And yet people had the nerve to tell us we were overreacting. When we mentioned long COVID, they’d roll their eyes. When we talked about potential long-term organ damage, they’d dismiss us with “kids are resilient.” When we pointed to emerging research, they’d say or bring up with some opinion about “learning loss” or “socialization.” What about the “learning loss” that comes with brain impairment from repeated infections? What about the “socialization” challenges for kids dealing with chronic fatigue or pain? The JAMA study followed kids for up to two years. Some risks eventually returned to baseline, but others never did. Cognitive problems, dementia-like symptoms, psychotic disorders, and epilepsy showed elevated risk throughout the entire study period. That risk never came back down. This wasn’t just a temporary inconvenience we were protecting our children from. This was potentially permanent damage from repeated infections. And homeschooling was our lifeboat in a sea of denial. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it required sacrifice. Yes, we had to completely reorganize our lives. But we kept our kids from being subjected to wave after wave of infections in environments that made zero serious attempts to reduce transmission. The Lancet study of over a million children painted the same grim picture. During the omicron era, when reinfections became the norm in schools, risk increased across almost every measure they tracked. Meanwhile, our homeschooled kids weren’t part of that statistic. They weren’t catching it three, four, five times like their peers in traditional school settings. What makes me furious is that protecting kids from repeated infections was entirely possible. Masks work. Air filtration works. We know exactly how schools could have been made safer. But society decided it wasn’t worth the inconvenience. They chose “normal” over healthy. They pretended the pandemic ended because they got bored with it. They abandoned children to wave after wave of infections because adults couldn’t be bothered anymore. We refused to play along with that game, and now the research vindicates our choice. I don’t expect an apology from the people who called us paranoid. I don’t expect acknowledgment from the officials who failed to protect children in their care. I don’t expect schools to suddenly implement the safety measures they should have had all along. But I do want other parents to know: you weren’t crazy for homeschooling. You weren’t overreacting. You were seeing clearly what others refused to see. The studies aren’t ambiguous. The data isn’t unclear. The risks are real. The consequences are serious and potentially lifelong. We protected our children while institutions failed. We stepped up when schools wouldn’t. We made the hard choice that the evidence now shows was absolutely the right one. Homeschooling during COVID wasn’t paranoia. It was the sanest option on the table. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.