I'm writing to express my concern regarding the decision to not require masks in elementary schools (and/or for all middle and high school students) during the 2021/2022 school year.

Although we understand that your goal is to align your policies with the guidance of Jeffco Public Health, the most safety-conscious and conservative approach is the right approach, regardless of what Jeffco Public Health ends up deciding. Other prominent organizations like the CDC, WHO, and AAP have all issued guidance recommending that all students and staff be masked in school until pediatric vaccines are available. I would like to see Jeffco's policies align with these recommendations. Masks will allow schools to remain open, which is what our kids deserve.

School aged children may not be as likely to get seriously ill from Covid-19, but we still don't know the long-term impacts on their health. The Delta variant is over 50% more transmissible (some say 200%) with a 1000% higher viral load. This makes it more dangerous than previous strains, and unvaccinated populations (like children) can effectively become a reservoir for the virus if proper precautions aren't taken. And even if they themselves are masked, children run a high risk of still being infected by their unvaccinated and unmasked peers. Also, there is still a percentage of children throughout the nation who have died from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) in relation to contracting the Covid-19 virus. We cannot take this risk.

Remote schooling is no longer an option for many parents on account of their financial circumstances, and they should not be forced to send their children to a school that is not taking common sense measures to ensure safety. When masking is not possible (ie. lunchtime), schools should take steps to facilitate social distancing and good ventilation, including utilizing outdoor spaces. Fewer sick kids means more learning in the classroom. The presence of unvaccinated and unmasked students will lead to more infections and more students out of the classroom. Our universal goal of maximum in-person learning cannot be achieved without maximum efforts to minimize the number of infections.

Last year, Jeffco Public Schools achieved phenomenal results with safety measures that ensured low infection rates and high in-person attendance. Continuing this trend will help us overcome this pandemic. Please show us that safety is still your priority by putting this very simple mask mandate in place. It’s an easy solution to an enormous problem.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this.