February 7, 2022

Dear Governor Newsom, Orange County council, Capistrano Unified School District, Teachers and Faculty of San Juan Hills High School, 

According to California Leaders, students within California public schools are not allowed to be inside of a building without a mask or a legal exemption stating otherwise. We understand that these rules have been created to ensure the protection and safety of students and faculty during the pandemic. Respectfully, we now decline these mandates and request that all rules and guidelines pertaining to the mandatory masking of students and staff be lifted and left to the choice of the individual.

After spending two years now behind a mask, we are inclined to ask for change. 

Masks, we were told, would protect us from Covid. As we have become more immune to Covid and found that studies have shown that vaccinated students are no longer at significant risk or harm, masks have become more of a political virtue signal and less a safety standard. Please run your politics in another setting outside of the classroom. Recent scientific studies prove not only that young people are at a significantly minimal risk, but also that masks are very ineffective in stopping the virus at this point in the pandemic. Please stop masking the truth. 

We are now seeing something horrible occur: leaders' political campaigns and desires to push their motives have started to affect all students. Especially student mental health-proof of which can be found in the rise of child suicide and depression rates which have increased with covid. Scientific studies have shown that not having the ability to see another’s facial gestures is crippling children’s learning and development mentally, physically, and emotionally. We are putting a wall between our students and teachers. How is that right? The benefits of wearing a mask do not outway the negatives. The math simply does not add up. 

Because we trust science and math, we cannot follow laws that are scientifically stale. As the Constitution states, when a law is unjust, we have the right to protest, and when our laws and mandates become scientifically outdated and inaccurate we have a societal duty to reorganize, to establish informed and improved standards.

We are asking to reorganize. We request that students be given the choice of whether they choose to cover their face or not. 

When the cure (masks) becomes worse than the disease (Covid), it becomes the disease. We have been infected with this disease for two long years. We can't breathe right. We can't learn right. This isn’t right.

As we have respected you and have listened to you, we now ask that you return the favor. Instead of making laws you think will benefit us, please simply listen to what we actually need. We believe this will help you fulfill your government callings more completely. 

Covid rules have kept many of us safe for a long time. Many of us have taken the added precaution of becoming fully vaccinated. We can't mask forever – we have to pivot. When better information and better protocols have become available to us, we have implemented them. It is time again to change the rules. Adapt or die.

Besides making it difficult to breathe, masks are making the earth sick. As millions of masks are produced, many end up in our streets, landfills, and oceans. Is this what is considered “responsible”? What happened to caring for the planet? Why are we disposing millions of dollars to those who did not ask, nor need protection?

We mean this with the utmost respect and sincerely await your response. We regard this letter as a hope of having stable, honest, and responsible communication between the people and their government.

Sincerely, 

Parents, Teachers, Faculty, and Students.

For more info on the science, please read: https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/