Masking and vaccinating our children should be a choice, not a mandate.

In much of the United States, children continue to experience disproportionate COVID-19 restrictions, and the negative effects are mounting. 

A team of well-respected scientists and pediatric, infectious disease, emergency, and ICU doctors have advocated for an urgent return to normal.  This team has specifically recommended masks to become optional as soon as possible in US schools.  They have created a comprehensive, data-driven toolkit to guide schools on how to “return to normal” - available to read here:

https://www.urgencyofnormal.com/about

We align with this team of experts and agree that masking a child should be a family choice.  Those who are concerned about COVID-19 have the choice to vaccinate their children and can also choose to mask their children if they deem appropriate.  There is no justification to be forcing children to wear masks.

High-quality one-way masking is more effective at protecting the vulnerable than the universal use of low-quality masks.  Studies have consistently failed to prove that mask mandates make a difference to school transmission of COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.  

Wearing masks for 7+ hours a day has many harmful effects that run counter to RHCSD’s mission statement to provide a supportive and inclusive learning environment for all children, including:

- Impeding the ability of deaf and hard-of-hearing kids to communicate and learn.
- Trauma to children with sensory sensitivities, for whom wearing masks can be especially challenging.
- Poorly understood and potentially significant effects on the development of younger children who need to see faces for social, emotional, and linguistic development.
- Damage to the teacher-student relationship.
- Harm to the social fabric of the school, working to aggravate feelings of frustration, anger, and aggression by depriving both children and teachers of the primary signal of human acceptance, love, and understanding – the smile.

Join us now and show your support in making masks and vaccines a choice so we can once again see our beautiful children’s smiles!