The covid-19 pandemic has affected people across the whole world for years now in various life altering ways. Mask mandates have been present for over 2 years now seemingly indefinitely. I believe that every person is well within their human rights to draw the line that must not be crossed for something and anything they see unfit to their beliefs. It is undeniable the social affects the mask mandate has set to our society. It has become a normal to do many things known to prevent the spread of covid-19 but for a large majority of people we understand that something so altering should not and can not be set in stone.

         There are many controversial perspectives towards the mask mandate, therefore I must add this petition is not over a political issue, but a social issue and maybe even a human rights issue. Recent past has shown that the lowest health risk demographic is children and young adults, yet students are forced to wear masks for their education more often then most adults and elders.

       Some people may want to wear masks and I support and respect their personal decisions to the fullest, but with the personal decision to wear a mask there should be a decision to not wear a mask especially for such a low risk group. Though public schools don’t have the authority to give this option to students, they have little to no voice in this predicament because any failure to follow state mask guidelines will result in loss of state funding.         

     I ask all Wilbur Creston Keller students, staff and parents/ Guardians to stand up not just for our school but to stand with the school and soon perhaps all schools statewide. If you, like me and other students throughout our WCK high school, elementary and middle school, want to draw the line on the public school mask mandate, please sign my petition.

This petition will be sent to people of proper authority and representation in our state including:

• Tom Dent  (Lincoln County Representatives)
• Alex Ybarra (Lincoln County Representatives)
• Umair Shah (Washington DOH Secretary of Health)
• Lacy Fehrenbach (Deputy Secretary for COVID Response)
• Nate Weed (Deputy Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response)

Thank you for your participation, I encourage you to spread the word and state your voice peacefully.