The education of our children should be in the hands of us parents. Many families have either two working parents in the home or one parent in the home that also works. If our schools start doing hybrid schedules (part time on campus, part time at home) or changing to completely at home, parents will have to miss work or incur the cost of child care for the days the students are required to stay home. Many families already struggle with making ends meet without adding the expense of childcare or the loss of hours at work because they have to stay home with their children.

Also, it has been proven that requiring masks be worn has no advantage to the overall health of anyone. In fact there are many health risks associated with the prolonged wearing of a mask and breathing in ones own co2 that was meant to be expelled. Aside from the obvious health risks, wearing masks all day leads to an uncomfortable work day for our teachers, staff and students. Morale will be low and will likely lead to decreased productivity which will affect state testing and then the scores of our schools and ultimately funding. 

It is understandable that some parents will not be comfortable with sending their students back to traditional schooling. This is where the option of keeping their own child home to pursue distance learning comes into play. The ability to do so would follow guidelines to make curriculum available at home like already planned. However, no one should be forced to keep their children at home fully or partially. If a parent decides to send their student back to a traditional school setting, a waiver can be signed by the parents that state we understand the risks involved with sending our kids back to school and that the state, school board, city and parish cannot be held responsible if your child contracts Covid-19. 

In addition, it is understandable that new precautions will be taken such as frequent cleaning of areas, sanitizing, hand washing and no sharing of supplies. However, our kids are being robbed of their formative years of developing social skills if we require them to section off into areas of 6 feet distance between every human being they come into contact with. Which let's be honest. Whomever came up with that idea must have never had children or have long forgotten what its like to try to keep any children, muchless small children apart or still enough to implement these restrictions. 

Our country has survived far worse throughout history and never, to my knowledge, shut down completely including schools. This virus will never go away if we tuck tail and run from it. We need to face it head on and allow herd immunity to do what it does best, which is strengthen the immune systems of the vast majority of society. This cannot be done without human contact. 

Please join me in asking our Governor, State Senators and school Superintendent to allow us as the parents to decide what is best for our children and our own lives. Thank you.