We are asking BPS to follow over 97% of all school districts across the state and the country and make masks optional for students at Boston Public Schools.

After a year of at-home learning and now a year of masking at school, we are increasingly concerned that our children are being asked to shoulder a disproportionate burden in the COVID-19 pandemic despite being the lowest risk group. Currently, as mask mandates have been dropped on the MBTA, airplanes, trains, crowded stadiums and concerts, museums, Boston's private schools, Massachusetts public schools, and nearly all workplaces, the BPS schools are an extreme outlier.

Numerous scientific papers have established that masks on schoolchildren are doing more harm than good. Masks have been found to be detrimental to critical developmental tasks such as speech and hearing, as well as inhibiting social interactions.

Additionally as we approach the end of the school year, many BPS schools have no air conditioning, forcing children to spend 6+ hours in a hot, humid classroom with one oscillating fan. Last May and June, there were 20 days with temperatures reaching over 80 degrees and eight days that reached above 90 degrees. 

Mask optional policies at other districts have not shown to lead to increased transmission. Studies have shown one-way masking to be effective and we fully support students, staff, and parents who choose to still mask.

If the 10 cases per 100,000 residents metric cited by the BPHC in their March 9th meeting is still being used to determine masks in schools it is now outdated, arbitrary and unrealistic. In this new phase of the pandemic, the CDC has recommended that “we adjust our approach to COVID-19 as the situation changes...The new system will focus on meaningful consequences such as hospitalizations, severe illness, and death." 

The City of Boston dropped the COVID-19 State of Emergency on April 1, 2022. It is unclear to us how the mask mandate at BPS can continue without Mayor Wu and BPHC having emergency authorization over the schools. There is no transparency as to who now has the authority to make this change.

Our children have not had the option to go without a mask for more than 2 years. Adults and other children now have this option almost everywhere they go. It is time to give our children this same freedom.