No doubt there have been challenges over the last year. I am writing to you to address the masking of our children. This issue has clearly been misunderstood and, as a result of this misunderstanding, has been implemented incorrectly and has purposely overburden each individual child and their family.

Before 2019, nobody within the School District Leadership would have dreamed of masking children in school. When contemplatingthe implementation of a medical device to an entire population, there MUST be discussion and consideration for exemptions to that policy. For example, medical and religious exemptions for vaccines are provided under state law. In order to process the exemption(s), state law simply requires a letter from a medical provider outlining complications with the vaccine OR a simple letter from the parent(s) that a vaccine(s) is against their religious beliefs; the schools must honor these submissions. Why can’t this logic be applied to the utilization of masks?

On April 18, 2020, “U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authorizing the use of face masks by members of the general public, including health care personnel (HCP) in healthcare settings as personal protective equipment.”1 This did not and currently does NOT mean that the use of face masks by the general public is APPROVED by the FDA. It is important to understand that for the same reason the COVID vaccine cannot be mandated as it only has EUA, masks cannot (and should not be) mandated. The EUA also states people must be informed "of the significant known and potential benefits and risks of the emergency use of the product, and of the extent to which such benefits and risks are unknown.”1 Our School District Leadership has definitely not done as the EUA has stated in informing our community with regards to “the significant known and potential benefits and risks of the emergency use of masks, and of the extent to which such benefits and risks are unknown”1with respect to masking our children. There are numerous studies highlighting the risks of masking children and I’d like to highlight one of those. In October 2020, a German study was conductedinvolving 363 doctors who populated a registry of patient complaints while wearing masks. The patients were children under the age of 18 whose average wearing time of the mask was 270 minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These impairments included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%), impaired learning (38%), and drowsiness or fatigue (37%).2

If children and/or their families feel they want to wear a mask that is their right; they should not be mandated. 

As an additional point of reference on why masks should not be mandated for everyone, we can look at the state mandate. If the state mandate were never to have come into existence, none of our children would be wearing masks. Knowing this, we should treat the state mandate as our guiding principles for enforcement.Paragraph 2a of the state mandate states:

“Where a person is unable to wear a mask or cloth face covering due to a medical or disabling condition; provided that a person who declines to wear a mask or cloth face covering because of a medical or disabling condition shall not be required to produce documentation verifying the condition, except as provided in Section 3.”3

Given the above, individuals are not required to wear masks and are also not required to show proof of the exemption. This provides for a great deal of personal responsibility and freedom. Further on in the state mandate, Section 3 specifically discussesthe workplace and schools, stating:

“If a student is unable to wear a face covering because of a medical or disabling condition and will participate in in-person learning, the school MAY likewise require documentation to verify condition.”3

“MAY likewise require”…This language, like Section 2a, provides for the same amount of latitude to allow for personal/family responsibility and freedom when choosing whether to mask their child. Why is the School District Leadership requiring verification of medical or disabling conditions for masks, when, under state law, I can send my child to school without vaccineswith a simple letter that vaccines are against my religious beliefs? Many families may not realize that the state mandate, which is our guiding principle, does allow for the school to accept children without masks, with their parent’s consent. The school is well within its right, per the state mandate, to allow for this. Why is there not an opt-out form for parents who do not wish their child wear a mask?

School District Leadership continues to parrot the narrative thatmasks protect everyone else. This is completely false and dangerous messaging for our children. In fact, there is a case study to prove that going to school without a mask is not harmful to the children or the teachers. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study in March 2021 that looked at all 1.9 million children in Sweden (ages 1-16) and the effect that COVID had on them while attending school. Important to note is that the country never shutdown this demographics’ schools and they didn’t mandate masks. What they found was:

“The number of deaths from any cause among the 1,951,905 children in Sweden (as of December 31, 2019) who were 1 to 16 years of age was 65 during the pre–Covid-19 period of November 2019 through February 2020 and 69 during 4 months of exposure to Covid-19 (March through June 2020). From March through June 2020, a total of 15 children with Covid-19 (including those with MIS-C) were admitted to an ICU (0.77 per 100,000 children in this age group).”4

Additionally

“fewer than 10 preschool teachers and 20 schoolteachers in Sweden received intensive care for Covid-19 up until June 30, 2020 (20 per 103,596 schoolteachers, which is equal to 19 per 100,000). As compared with other occupations (excluding health care workers), this corresponded to sex- and age-adjusted relative risks of 1.10 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.49 to 2.49) among preschool teachers and 0.43 (95% CI, 0.28 to 0.68) among schoolteachers.”4

Basically, kids went to school and they didn’t get sick. Teachers went to school and they didn’t get sick. The health of the teachers is an important stat to understand because I know there has been huge hesitation from the Teachers Union to send teachers back because it is not safe. Even though there is an acknowledgement that children are at virtually ZERO risk as compared to years prior to COVID, a large population of teachers believe the children can spread disease to them through “asymptomatic spread”. This is another fallacy perpetuated by misinformation. Healthy people virtually never spread disease. If children go to school without symptoms, they are not a threat to anyone else. How do you think we survived all these years with the flu? We used common sense procedures to stay home if you feel unwell. To further back up this fact, a peer reviewed article published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) done by the University of Florida provides a systematic review on household transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study found a asymptomatic transmission rate to be 0.7% as compared to a symptomatic transmission rate of 18%.5 Also, let’s not forget a now famous quote from Dr. Fauci back in January 2020 stating:

“In all the history of respiratory-borne viruses of any type, asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks. The driver of outbreaks is ALWAYS a symptomatic person."

The point of all of this info is to shed light on the facts and to help people understand that what we did not know back in January through March 2020 is not the same environment we are living in now. We know our children are at far greater risk from being deprived of oxygen, deprived social interaction, deprived in-person learning, and of the inability to connect to other kids/adults via facial expressions. The studies I have cited are only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more that support my request and also argue in favor of freeing the population to put their health in their own hands, not the hands of the Government. The school has, and has always had, the ability to allow for children to receive the same education as other children even if they choose not to wear a mask. Maskless children are not pariahs, they are not unhealthy, and they are not a threat to other people. It is not right for there to be a single arbiter (i.e. school/district nurse) to decide whether wearing a non-approved medical device is the right choice for your child.

I lay this information out there for you to digest and hopefully properly act on. The School District Leadership is fully able to allow for children to come to school without a mask if they simply make a statement that is in line with the state mandate.....end of story. Why is this not the case? Why is this being treated differently from flu procedures and how vaccine exemptions work?

1.https://www.fda.gov/media/137121/download

2. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-124394/v1

3. https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-order-55/download

4. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2026670

5. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774102