It's back to school season, things are reopening, but the Delta variant is spreading, rapidly. Currently through the Ohio State Senate, SB 209 is being quietly pushed through the process of being passed. 

SB 209 would make it illegal for school districts to mandate masks for students, teachers, or visitors, and further, masks would not be able to be required at any school sponsored gathering or event. 

SB 209 applies to K-12 schools in addition to Colleges and Universities. 

SB 209 is incredibly dangerous for a multitude of reasons, but the most detrimental being that children are currently unable to be vaccinated. Banning the use of masks in the school setting is an effective ban of the best public health measure we currently have for the prevention of COVID-19 in children and adolescents. 

Children and adolescents are vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19, and suffer from long haul COVID at the same rate as adults.

Banning masks at Universities is additionally thoughtless, as the staff members at Universities have families that they go home to, and many have children that are not yet able to be vaccinated. In addition, University faculty are already contract bound to teach in the modality that they indicated they preferred before Delta became prevalent, meaning they are locked into in-person contracts. 

Please sign to tell the Ohio State Senate that this bill is not what the people want.