This petition represents our request for the Nassau County School Board to make changes of the current requirement that our elementary school students/children wear a face-covering while walking in hallways, riding the bus, waiting in line in the cafeteria, and when working in small groups or individually with a teacher or peers whenever a divider is unavailable.  Instead, allowing each and every family the opportunity to make individual decisions for their own child(ren) in regards to wearing a mask at school. Given the extended duration of the this unnecessary and dehumanizing “Forced Child Masking” policy we feel this petition is the next necessary step to show the growing number of parents who are becoming increasingly concerned with the prolonged effects that mask-wearing will have on their children's future. We want to see action and not empty promises of change the next school year or generic emails. 

Teachers should be educating their students, not spending their valuable time feeling like they need to police and punish children for not wearing their mask correctly. Students being punished for a policy that is not mandated by the state or any federal entity is unacceptable. The Nassau County School Board should not be able to say what is medically necessary for all children. With the availability of Covid-19 vaccines to all teachers and staff and the proven low transmission rate from children, there shouldn't be a reason why masks aren't optional within our schools. 

Many potential harms may arise from forced masking the following unanswered questions arise:

Do used and loaded masks become sources of enhanced transmission, for the wearer and others?

Do masks become collectors and retainers of pathogens that the mask wearer would otherwise avoid when breathing without a mask?

Are large droplets captured by a mask atomized or aerolized into breathable components?

Can virions escape an evaporating droplet stuck to a mask fiber?

What are the dangers of bacterial growth on a used and loaded mask?

How do pathogen-laden droplets interact with environmental dust and aerosols captured on the mask?

What are long-term health effects on school age children (4-18), such as headaches, arising from impeded breathing?

Are there negative social consequences to a masked society?

Are there negative psychological consequences to wearing a mask, as a fear-based behavioral modification?

What are the environmental consequences of mask manufacturing and disposal?

Do the masks shed fibers or substances that are harmful when inhaled?

We are NOT asking for mask to be abolished, we are asking the school board to allow the parents to make the decision for their own children by making masks optional for students.