Speaking Up for Masks

 After our never-ending COVID quarantine experience, I started to think how this would affect our school year. Back when numbers were low, most officials agreed masks could come off or be optional, including schools. Of course people always forget about the kids and the fact that they don’t have the option to be vaccinated yet. 

Our district announced prematurely that masks would be optional for school. Well, the Delta variant doesn’t care what you think and has come back full force and has a good amount of us worried. 

We still don’t know if our girls had COVID. Their antibody tests came back negative but my PCP told me those tests are not accurate at all. This whole pandemic is full of uncertainty. 

A group of parents organized ourselves to speak up for a masking mandate at our elementary schools (re: unvaccinated) at an emergency School Board meeting. 

And yes, kids may be fine if they contract the virus. But my child can’t wear a mask well due to her disabilities and features. So I’m being asked to toss my child into the deep end where other families don’t want to mask at school. No mask = quarantine. Mask = no quarantine. You see where I’m going? If Hannah is constantly exposed at school, her education is fractured and she’s already delayed as is. Not to mention the disruption quarantining is for working parents. 

We’ve seen countless states open up schools only to immediately mask up or go virtual after a week or two because so many students are infected.

So I got my speech ready and presented my case to our School Board. The meeting went on for four hours. It was standing room only and heated - mainly from parents who didn’t want their kids masked. 

Looking back now, it’s interesting how much of us “Pro Masking” parents used the words “we/us/our” and the “Parent Choice” parents used the words “me/my/I.” 

Our School Board voted 4-1 to mandate masks in the elementary schools. The 1 man who voted “No” is trying to save his voter base and spot on the Board for re-election  :: eyeball ::

The Board will revisit the subject every month to reassess. 

Even though our group “won,” we didn’t feel good - the amount of hate and vitriol from parents is absurd. One Board member asked for a police escort to her car, Board members have had threats against them and their families. Over wanting to keep kids in the classroom.

Advocating is hard work.