IV Schools: don’t endanger us!
IV Schools: don’t endanger us!
Why this petition matters
People in the IV have been debating wether or not to require students wear masks at school. We are asking that our administration keeps our safety in mind, and best interests at heart, by making the call to require students wear masks correctly at school and at school activities where applicable.
Masks have been proven to reduce the spread of illnesses like Covid 19, the Flu, and Common Colds. Wearing a mask does not increase the level of carbon monoxide one breathes. Masks simply work to limit the amount of droplets, contaminated or not, that a person takes in from and puts out into the world.
Paired with basic hand hygiene, social distancing, and simple sanitation measures, masks can slow the spread of Covid and help to keep us in person for the rest of the year. Masks are not at alternative to social distancing. We already sit fairly close to one another in most classes and during lunch- our schools were not built with a pandemic in mind, and that’s okay! We can offset the risk of these (from a pandemic perspective) close quarters by diligently and properly wearing masks. Can you name a single student who would want to give up sitting near their friends? Or who would want us to return to awkward partially live partially remote instruction?
By working together to protect ourselves and our community, we can ensure high school continues to be high school. It may look slightly different than what the generations before us had, but this is about our futures: our memories may be of wearing masks at basketball games, during a stressful math test, and while chatting in the halls, but at least we will get to have those memories. Wear your mask, even if it’s not the most comfortable thing you’ll ever do, and we will make it to the end of the year in person.
Admin of the local schools: please, hold to the promise you made to our parents to act in loco parentis while we are on your campuses. Require students wear masks for the better of our communities. Let science help you in these decisions, recognize the situation we are all in, and choose to protect us. If you so choose to allow students to not wear masks, the very least you can do for us is to ensure unvaccinated students continue to wear a mask.