This is NOT ok!!!! Our children should not be forced to cover their faces. Children are forced to go to school with a mask on covering their noses, mouths, and airways with a cloth. An entire school day goes by, without seeing a smile, a laugh, or even the mouth of their own teacher, friends, peers, and principal while they talk and learn. This is going on 8+ hours a day! Children are NOT as susceptible to COVID as it has been proven and said time and time again. There are vaccines for adults who choose to get them, and masks should be optional for those who want to wear them. This is inhumane to force our children to cover their airways and may cause further health concerns, including emotionally & mentally. If people can go into restaurants, sit down and take off their masks, our own CHILDREN should be able to take them off at school as well, to breathe sitting down. If whole states are lifting masks mandates, we should not force our children to be controlled in a way that society has shown them to be scared of going in public! Enough is enough and it’s time to help these precious children out! We have heard these masks DO NOT WORK, yet we are still being forced to wear them. Make it a point to LET THE PARENTS decide if they want their own child to wear a mask or not. Please Join me in expressing to the ISD- Independence School District,  that our children should want to go and learn mask-free if they want to! To be able to see their teachers and peers faces, and not in fear every day while going to a school they love.  Children should not be forced to do online school if they cannot or do not want to wear a mask. I believe that we as parents, should have the choice to choose what WE want our kids to do, masks or no mask, it is our choice! 

Thank you! 
Rachel Skaggs