With new recommendations and evolving health information concerning the spread of COVID-19 by The CDC, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The Texas Department of Health and Human Services, and local hospitals such as Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, we as parents and concerned family members implore you to reinstate mask mandates on all BISD campuses and conduct contact tracing in our schools immediately, for the health and safety of our children and vulnerable family members.

As you know, pediatric covid cases are growing throughout the country and our community at a much larger rate than they have within the past year and a half since the pandemic began, and most alarming is the rate in which severe illness requiring hospitalization is affecting our children.

The science on COVID and kids is clear: children can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, can get sick with and die of COVID-19, and can spread the virus to others. Recent studies estimate that anywhere from 10-45% of kids under 12 who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience “long haul” symptoms that last more than five weeks after diagnosis, even if they experience mild acute infection.

This is all to say, kids have not been and will not be spared in this pandemic. Importantly, kids can also transmit COVID to their unvaccinated, immunocompromised, and otherwise vulnerable family members and friends, which further contributes to community spread and the emergence of new variants of the virus and puts the “end” of this pandemic further out of reach.

Currently, children under 12 and other unvaccinated individuals are the most vulnerable in our population. We can not allow disease to spread freely within the walls of our schools. We understand that no one loves wearing a mask, but that choice leaves out the children who are at risk for severe illness. We can't just care about some of the kids. We either care about all of the kids, or none of the kids.

Stand up for our children and do the right thing! Follow the lead of the the health experts and the many other school districts in the state that have updated their COVID-19 protocols and require masks on all campuses and reinstate contact tracing in Birdville ISD immediately.