Parents of students in the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown should have the autonomy to determine if their students should wear masks to school and other related activities.  They have God-given authority over their children to determine what is best for them.  They have the deepest understanding of the needs their children require regarding faith formation, physical and mental health, and social well-being.  Their love for their children drives their resolve to choose what is best for them and what risks to assume. 

Studies have determined, time and again, that school-aged children are incredibly resilient in fighting off infection and serious illness from COVID-19.  These studies have shown that this resiliency is on par with, or even greater than, how they respond to other respiratory viruses and illnesses.  As a society, we've accepted risks of those illnesses and other accidents for our children, but now parents are not given that same autonomy for COVID-19.  Moreover, studies have shown that cloth and surgical masks offer significantly less protection from the spread of respiratory droplets as compared to N95 masks, which are not required, and are almost never used.  All of this, together, indicates to parents that this is far less about public health and more about control.  Parents now face a violation of conscience.  Further resolved, adults who have seen fit, have had every opportunity to receive the vaccine, which offers significant protection from serious illness.  Given the little risk children face, the ineffectiveness of masks, and the prevalence of vaccines for older populations, many parents are willing to sign liability release forms that hold harmless the Diocese and individual schools.

Many of the public schools within the Diocesan footprint have chosen to follow the Department of Health Guidance to allow for parental discretion in whether to choose masks for their children or not.  The Department of Health guidance allows for exemptions from the mask order for a variety of reasons with parental discretion.  Yet, the Diocese has chosen to take, unnecessarily, a stricter interpretation of the Department of Health order.  This decision has brought disunity to our Catholic Schools and Religious Education Programs and disrupts our student's educations and faith formation.  This course of action is leaving a large contingent of the families whose children attend Catholic Schools and Religious Education Programs within the Diocese to feel helpless to do what is best for their children and for their schools. Parents are now faced with very difficult and unwanted decisions regarding what to do about their child’s education.

We, the parents of students in The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Schools and Religious Education Programs, and other supporters, strongly implore that the Diocese re-evaluate and reverse its decision to require a medical diagnosis as the only means of exemption from this order.  We also ask that you coordinate with other Dioceses across Pennsylvania in petitioning the Administration and other elected officials to reverse the ineffective and unnecessary mask mandate.  Mostly, we beseech you to restore a parent's autonomy to choose what is best for their children so that our Catholic Schools and Religious Education Programs may, once again, be unified to serve out our collective mission of educating our children in faith formation and academic excellence.