It is time to end the mandatory outdoor masking policy of our children at Mokapu Elementary School and instead allow parents and children the freedom to decide whether or not they will mask outdoors.

According to the most recent Hawaii Department of Health COVID-19 Guidelines for K-12, "students and staff do not need to wear masks in most outdoor settings." Continuing to require masks outside is, subsequently, left up to individual schools.  Therefore, the decision to end the mandatory outdoor masking policy is a school-level decision and we are calling on Principal Almanza to do just that.  While we look forward to the end of all mask mandates in the State of Hawaii, we recognize that ending the mandatory outdoor masking policy is the only school-level decision that can be made at this time. 

This outdoor masking policy goes against current research and data that clearly indicate harm over benefit or protection, as well as national and global masking trends.  Some of these are listed below: 

1) Outdoor transmission of COVID-19 is exceedingly rare with some epidemiologists estimating the rate to be between 0.1 and 1% of all cases. 

2) The CDC acknowledges that cloth masks provide the least protection against the spread of COVID-19. 

3) Children are, as a population, least likely to get or transmit COVID-19.

4) Hawaii is the last state in the U.S. without a plan to end mask mandates.  This makes our children some of the last children in the U.S. to wear masks outside on their school campus. 

We appeal to your sense of reason and your moral obligation to do what is in the best interest of our children.