WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused US President Donald Trump of"messing with" children's health on Sunday and said federal guidelines on reopening schools amid the coronavirus outbreak should be mandatory.
"Going back to school presents the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus," Pelosi said on CNN's"State of the Union" program."If there are CDC guidelines, they should be requirements.""They should be mandates." On Sunday, the Republican president's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, repeatedly refused to say if states and school districts should follow the CDC guidelines.
"We know that schools across the country look very different and that there's not going to be a one-size-fits-all approach to everything," she told"Fox News Sunday." CDC recommendations for schools include testing for Covid-19, dividing students into small groups, serving packaged lunches in classrooms instead of cafeterias, and minimizing sharing of school supplies. It has advised that seats be spaced at least six feet apart and that sneeze guards and partitions be put in place when social distancing is not possible.