We are nearing the new school year, and our governor, Greg Abbott, has doubled down on not putting the health of our children or communities before his own, misguided, uninformed opinions and ideals.

I am asking that we as parents of Midway ISD students demand that Dr. Kazanas and the school board ignore what the governor has said, and stand up for what is right. Austin ISD and Dallas ISD have done it, and their influence reaches far more people than Midway ISD. They are doing their part to keep their communities as healthy as possible, Midway should too.

We already know that the delta variant is highly contagious, and more detrimental to our health, vaccinated or not. If our kids go to school, where teachers, administrators, staff and children are not required to wear masks, the virus is just going to spread, and spread fast, within our community.

There are a large number of kids that can’t even choose whether they get the shot or not, because there isn’t one for their age group yet. Our kids are unprotected, and God forbid, they bring it home where the whole family could suffer from this virus.

I know they aren’t fun, but masks are the first and best defense for this virus, lets be a guiding light for the other school districts and be leaders in Texas, make masks mandatory within our schools!