On September 4, 2020, Governor Lamont issued Executive Order No. 9, Section 1 providing that the Connecticut Commissioner of Education may issue binding guidance, rules, or orders for operation of schools or childcare settings that each deems necessary to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic or its effects or to implement any previous or future executive order issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that such rules or binding guidance may include rules related to the required use of masks or face-coverings in school buildings. That Executive Order is set to expire on February 15, 2022.

The State of Connecticut, including residents of Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge in particular, have high numbers of people who are COVID-19 recovered, vaccinated against COVID-19, or both.

Many countries, states, towns, communities and schools throughout the United States and the world have made mask-wearing optional, with no effect on community spread of COVID-19. 

Furthermore, a recent paper from Johns Hopkins University found that lockdowns and mitigation strategies have had little to no affect on improving public health: https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Pm6Dpx-rliQrUtSGrK-sHXia9pAaYdngz8XlHGbwa3KPyiJMQnE2w3vY

"While this meta analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."

We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who strongly believe in mask choice in the Bethany, Orange, Woodbridge, and Amity Public Schools. We urge local Selectmen, Boards of Education, and Superintendents to act immediately to make the wearing of masks and/or face coverings in Bethany, Orange, Woodbridge, and Amity Public School buildings optional for all students, faculty, staff, community members and visitors, regardless of vaccination status, effective immediately upon the expiration of Governor Lamont’s Executive Order No. 9, Section 1.