What? We want to make masks optional for students of district 204.

Why? If people want their children to wear a mask in school, that's perfectly fine. However, parents who do not want their children to wear a mask in school (and the children themselves who don't want to wear a mask) should have the option for their children to not wear a mask if they so choose.     

Supporting Information: We are not going to get into a scientific debate about the effectiveness of masks or a legal discussion, but instead will focus on the harm that isolation and masking is having on our children, which we believe most everyone can agree with.

• Being able to use others' verbal or facial cues to figure out how someone is feeling or pick up on safe or dangerous aspects of environments and people is a critical task for young kids.
• Language development, speech development, and emotional development are critical for children, all of which are being hampered because lips and facial expressions in general are not able to be seen. 
• Children who don't wear masks, whether in school or at sporting events, are often bullied by students with masks. 
• Suicide attempts have increased among adolescents aged 12 to 17, especially young girls, during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to CDC data.   
• Among the young girls, average weekly visits to the emergency department for suspected suicide attempts from February 2021 to March 2021 was 50.6% higher than the same period a year prior.
• The increase in suspected suicide attempts by young people could be attributed to social distancing, including a lack of connection to schools, teachers and friends.

Our Ask: If you would like to wear a mask, go for it. But everyone should have that choice. We ask you to support that choice.