Dear friends and fellow Hamden High Students, we want to achieve the same goal: discontinue mask wearing for all students, vaccinated or not. The benefits of masks in avoiding COVID-19-related serious illness or death in teenagers are negligible. At the same time, they are disruptive to classroom learning and communication. They may protect adults from COVID to some extent, but since when has it been ethical to burden teenagers for the benefit of adults? Teenagers are less at risk from COVID-19 than from accidents or the ordinary flu. The survival rate for teenagers with proven cases in the United States is roughly 99.99 percent. Masking has the potential to cause significant long-term harm to teenagers. Masking causes psychological stress in teens and causes learning to be disrupted. Both the teacher and the student's capacity to communicate is harmed when the lower part of their faces are covered. Teenagers, in particular, lose the ability to mimic expressions, which is an important technique in nonverbal communication. Positive emotions like laughing and smiling become less noticeable, while negative emotions grow more prominent. The relationship between professors and pupils suffers. Overall, masking is likely to increase the likelihood of a teenager experiencing anxiety and depression, which are already at epidemic proportions. Masks can cause acne in addition to producing tension and anxiety. Acne is caused by blocked pores. Oil, germs, and dead skin cells are already present on your skin. When you apply a mask, these toxins can build up even more, clogging your pores. A mask also collects humidity from your breathing and sweating, thus increasing your acne risk. So students of Hamden High help me fight this battle against the school/school board of education to make masks inside school optional.