Would you ask a seven-year-old to take public health measures that you yourself were unwilling to do?  To date, the Boston School Committee has done this exact thing.

This Thursday, Oct. 1st, Boston Public School students are scheduled to begin phasing into in-person learning. Students in second grade or higher are expected to wear a face mask for the entirety of the day (aside from lunch and brief scheduled "mask breaks" if weather & space allow). And many teachers will be expected to perform "simultaneous teaching", where they facilitate in-person, socially-distanced learning AND live online learning for remote students at the same time - all while having the majority of their face covered. 

Many teachers, when advocating against simultaneous teaching, have spoken up about the difficulty of engaging with students - especially online - when students can't see their faces, when their voices are less clear. School Committee members have, for the most part, written this off as a non-issue (Challenging Times and all). However, every good teacher knows that you learn best when actual engaging in a task yourself, which is why we are requesting that the members of the Boston School Committee wear a mask for the duration of their next public Zoom meeting.  This will be on Wednesday, Sept 30th, the evening before students and teachers are to arrive at school buildings to do this very thing. 

This request costs Committee members nothing, and takes no additional time. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Is it less than ideal for communication? Yes. Is it what they believe is reasonable to require of every teacher and almost all kids in BPS buildings? Yes, yes it is.

This request has been made of Committee members before, and to date only one has shown willingness to even try. Others have dismissed or ignored it. Article VI, Section 4B of the School Committee bylaws states "The School Committee sets operational policies and procedures to ensure a safe, efficient and effective learning environment for all students." If the School Committee is to understand this completely unprecedented year well enough to be charged with setting the policies and procedures for it, if they want to be able to claim that they support the additional challenges that teachers, students, and their families are facing, it is not an unreasonable or facetious request to ask that they take one evening to conduct their work in the manner that they will be requiring daily of teachers and students from elementary to high school. Will you join us in making this request - and conveying its importance - by signing this petition, and asking the Boston School Committee to mask up for one meeting?

#MaskUpBSC