Big Sky Times

The Republican candidate for the Montana House of Representatives District 43, Kerri Seekins-Crowe, has taken a stance against restrictions that would prevent Montana’s children from returning to school in the fall.

Seekins-Crowe recently told the Big Sky Times that the current government decisions that are drastically affecting the day-to-day lives of Montanans are being made without “adequate input, focus on facts, and expectations of managing long-term unintended consequences.”

Seekins-Crowe previously ran for the District 50 seat in 2016.

While the government looks at compromises, pleasing constituencies and with other “transactional” considerations, the policies devised are not simply symbolic gestures to the people who have to live with them, she said.

“People live out those policies, regulations, rules and/or mandates at a real, every day, punch-to-the gut level,” she said. “Whether or not schools will open and how they open is one of those decisions.”

Seekins-Crowe acknowledged that there could be risks associated with reopening Montana schools in the fall, as there are with every decision made in life, from stepping out the front door to taking a trip in a car. But she questioned if the actual probability of those risks justifies the known problems that keeping children out of school would create.

“Sending kids back to school is just one facet of what we can do to make our community healthier,” she said. “The facts show that kids are impacted much worse by the yearly influenza strain than they are COVID-19.”

And risks of not reopening schools in the fall also include risking the abandonment of basic Montanan values.

“Our heritage of who we are as Montanans means weighing the risks, taking action, and managing the outcomes,” she said. “Every day during the pandemic, great Montanans have been going to work to help ensure their fellow citizens are safe and healthy and have access to conveniences. We ask a lot from each other, and we are blessed that people rise to the occasion.”

Taking such a drastic measure as closing schools in the face of very limited risk goes against the very fabric of how Montanans live every day, Seekins-Crowe said.

In the midst of the challenges the state faces, it’s time to rise to the occasion, not shrink from it, she added.

“It’s the rugged individualism that makes Montana great,” she said. “In the past, we haven’t needed to always agree or see eye-to-eye to live in peace and to appreciate our neighbors. Why is it different now?”