This petition is to advocate for the health and safety of our children. The Elkhorn Community School Board and Administration need to make masks optional for our children effective immediately. 

Our children have been forced to wear masks for an entire school year and forced to follow absurd, inhumane protocols. We are over 1 year into this pandemic and the data is out. Children are not significant drivers of COVID-19 at school or at home. Children are statistically unaffected by COVID-19, transmit the virus, become seriously ill, or suffer death. New studies show masks are harming school-aged children physically, psychologically, and behaviorally. 

It is our duty as parents of students at Elkhorn Public Schools to protect the health and safety of our children. Douglas County and the state of Nebraska do not have mask mandates. The Omaha city mandate is expiring on May 25th and allows exemptions for those that are unable to wear them which Elkhorn Public Schools has chosen not to honor. The local public health guidance is not law. 

Please read the data below that supports optional masks moving forward and overwhelming growing evidence of long term harm in masking children. 

•https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7680614/

•https://aapsonline.org/mask-facts/?fbclid=IwAR0Y3JxaPyLuy8C9mFkJCpjOb3HMv8B78MCX_M94rVLJONyp7Ul9eH3wLGs

•https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372?fbclid=IwAR3vKGNNqzxA-9kvs1uuaGm7qROV61KNwbpriFPstU8_kcFxBVtLc19t-Dg

•https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e2018995118

•https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2775656

•https://principia-scientific.com/new-study-finds-covid-masks-harm-schoolchildrens-physical-mental-health/

•https://montanadailygazette.com/2021/01/25/new-study-finds-masks-hurt-schoolchildren-physically-psychologically-and-behaviorally/

•https://justtheinserts.com/masks

•https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4344

•https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.15729

•https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/maskin-children-tragic-unscientific-and-damaging?utm_source=gablsn