This petition is to advocate that ALL Catholic schools follow the Archdiocesan guidelines of optional masking provided on July 26, 2021 from the Superintendent's office. 

We are supporters of protecting the most vulnerable populations, and keeping kids healthy. We are not anti-anything. We just want to do what is right, and to make a decision that is for the highest good of the children based off of the most recent data and statistics that are available, with both common sense and logic.

We believe that where the CDC and AAP has failed, is by making blanket guidelines for the whole country, without taking into consideration regional disparities in the data that are vastly different from high-density populations. 

The rate of cases in children in Douglas County has remained low and stable this entire summer, despite the fact that most families have been out in public, without masks, traveling, and gathering in groups with their friends and family. We also wore masks to flatten the curve and protect the hospitals. Our hospitals are not overburdened, and children are certainly not the ones filling the beds. 

Prior to this last year, we did not have the data to know how this was going to play out for children. We now have that information, and the statistics do not show that there is a current state of emergency, nor that there is any evidence that children are asymptomatic spreaders. They simply are not suffering from this the way adults did, they are not spreading it the way adults did, and yet we are forcing them to take on this burden of wearing masks in school for another year without any real reason except that we're "following the experts." 

It is our duty as parents of students in the Omaha Catholic Schools to protect the health and safety of our children, but also to HONOR their God given immune system, as well as protect their cognitive, social, spiritual and emotional development. We are people of faith, who do not live in fear. 

It is not required to mask during Sunday mass, nor should be it required to walk into a school building. Douglas County and the state of Nebraska do not have mask mandates. We petition that parents should remain the primary decision maker of their child's health, and ask that schools do the same by allowing for a "parental choice" mask policy.

Submitted by thousands of schools, the data below demonstrates no evidence to support required masks because it did not make a significant difference in the rate of cases at the school. 

We are a silent majority, who LOVES our Catholic schools.

National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard
https://statsiq.co1.qualtrics.com/public-dashboard/v0/dashboard/5f78e5d4de521a001036f78e#/dashboard/5f78e5d4de521a001036f78e?pageId=Page_ffb4dc52-5543-46b2-8126-2b7229fd1b17 

Superintendent's Message, dated July 26, 2021
https://lovemyschool.com/superintendents-message