We are calling upon you to join us in advocating for the health and safety of Texas students, teachers, staff, and our community by requesting Leander Independent School District and other Texas school districts to allow hybrid teaching for the Fall semester of the 2021-2022 school year for kids who are not eligible to receive vaccination.

The goal of this petition is to ask our Texas Governor, Greg Abbott and Education Agency’s Commissioner Mike Morath, to allow schools to provide a hybrid model  or students for the Fall semester of the 2021-2022 school year due to COVID-19 surge currently gripping our country.

I'm a frontline physician in Austin, TX.  I have been taking care of COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic both in the general wards and ICU settings. As a hospitalist, I witnessed firsthand that, while the virus could infect anyone, there were also increased risks and infections amongst those who were already vulnerable.  We do not want our innocent kids to be exposed to these Variants of Concern (VOC). I would highly recommend hybrid learning until vaccines are available for kids under the age of 12.

In the last week alone, according to the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, nearly 72,000 cases were reported in children, roughly 19% of the total number of new cases nationwide.

In Texas, schools are opening soon with out guaranteed health and safety protocols in place and while community spread is high with the Delta Variant mostly among unvaccinated people. Children under 12 are not eligible for any of the three vaccines currently used in the United States, and the fast-spreading Delta variant has put them especially at risk.

Vaccines are being tested now in children as young as 6 months, but they probably won't be available for children younger than 12 for several more months.

Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)  is a serious condition that appears to linked to COVID-19. Most children who become infected with COVID-19 virus have only a mild illness. But in some children who go on to develop MIS-C some organs such as heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, blood vessels, digestive system, skin or eyes - become inflamed.  It can be very serious, even deadly for some children. We still don't know why some children have gotten sick with MIS-C and others have not. 

We Texans will not stand by as the government put our young children and those who are immunocompromised at risk. If we act soon, we still have the opportunity to get ahead of this pandemic and save lives before it is too late.

Better to be safe than sorry!!

Sign our petition, call/email Texas Governor Greg Abbott, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, and LISD superintendent imploring them to ensure the health and safety of the communities they serve by having the fall semester of the 2021-2022 school year done in hybrid model. 
 
 
Cedar Park, TX- 78613
United States
 
Dr. Asritha Srireddy, MD