* Please only sign this petition if you are a parent or a student at York Preparatory Academy *

We, the undersigned, urge the administrators at York Preparatory Academy to remove their mask mandate immediately and return to a PARENT CHOICE model.

Parental choice is the option where "everyone wins."  We are not trying to "unmask" anyone's child.  If you feel more comfortable sending your child to school in a mask, you may do so.  If your child suffers emotionally, physically or socially from wearing a mask, then it is your parental right to honor their needs. 

In nearby Fort Mill School District, positive cases have dropped 77% in the month of September without a mask mandate in place.  There is also not a mask mandate in place for Rock Hill School District.  As a publicly-funded school, YPA should not mandate masks for students. 

The science is NOT settled that long-term masking of children is safe or effective.  Countries such as the UK, Ireland, all of Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy have explicitly recognized that the decision to mask students carries with it potential academic and social harms for children and may lack a clear benefit.

Furthermore, the CDC cited 17 different studies in its K-12 guidance as evidence that masks on students are effective, but not one study looked at student mask use in isolation from other mitigation measures, or against a control. Some of these studies even demonstrated that no student masking correlated with low transmission. Celine Gounder, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at NYU, who also advised Biden’s transition team on COVID-19 policy, recently tweeted a chart that showed when cloth masks are worn by both the source and receiver they provide just an estimated 27 minutes of protection from an infectious dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

While some children are comfortable wearing a mask at school, long-term masking can have serious impacts on a child's academic, emotional and physical health.  71% of parents believe the pandemic has taken a toll on their child's mental health 69% say the pandemic is the worst thing to ever happen to their child.  The S.C. Department of Mental Health doesn’t yet have the numbers of children who killed themselves in the past school year, but school counselors say they know the death toll has risen dramatically - in Greenville, the number is up 800%. 

South Carolina public schools are bound by Proviso 1.108, which was passed by the General Assembly as part of the 2021-2022 General Appropriations Bill.  This Proviso prevents school districts from requiring face coverings in schools.  The Proviso is further supported by a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling (Richland County School District 2 v. Lucas).  While Molly Spearman, South Carolina Education Superintendent, plans to continue this battle in court, it is clear that the majority of South Carolinians support parental rights when it comes to making medical choices for their children. 

Given the complex nature of masking children at school, we, the undersigned, believe the medical decisions made for our children should be done by parents/families of the students, and not forced upon the students by any entity outside of their guardians/caretakers. Parents/families should be able to utilize their own risk assessment, considering all physical, mental, emotional and psychological risks and benefits when it comes to medical decisions, including masking.