The Richardson Independent School District has started their lift of the mask mandates today, November 3rd, 2021, in its Junior Highs and High Schools. This may seem fine to many who are vaccinated or don't believe the science, however we have to keep in mind that there ARE people with chronic illness coming and leaving the schools daily, people whos families won't allow them a vaccine, and let alone people with family members with chronic illness and who are above the age of 65 (over 80% of COVID Deaths) who they either come home to or will be coming home to during Thanksgiving Break in less than 3 weeks.

What about the elephant in the room, this being Sha’Niyah McGee and Eroletta Piasczyk who both so sadly passed away from COVID 19 the week of the 24th. Many came to a board meeting held days after the losses had been announced to fight for the mask mandate to stay in place and the district complied, now around a month later it seems that these 2 deaths and those voices were only temporarily heard and acknowledged as the mandate has now expired. Also the deaths of these valued members of the "RISD Family" aren't valued enough to be remembered or shown on the districts COVID 19 Case Portal (https://student.risd.org/pub/c19) The district seems happy enough to show the number of those with the virus next to a percentage to make it seem "so low" though.

The district needs to show it's integrity like it has been showing for the past couple of months and not fall onto the temporary drop of cases as an excuse to lift a mandate that is in place to PREVENT a rise of cases for the safety of its students who attend these second homes for at least 6 hours daily as well as their families.

RISD, if your district was able to RISE last year and you deemed virtual school overall no longer necessary for this year, then you need to make sure ALL DOES MEAN ALL this year, by thinking of those who can't choose to be vaccinated right now, who didn't choose to have chronic illness, and remembering that a mask protects others more than it protects the wearer.

Just a final reminder, a mask doesn't cause trouble breathing or pain and pressure in the chest that won’t go away, COVID does. Please Do Better.